


The Mother of Summer's Tale

by estowe



Category: BUJOLD Lois McMaster - Works, Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: F/M, Hetwar, hallow king Biast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-02-08
Packaged: 2017-11-28 15:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/675737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estowe/pseuds/estowe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years after separation (and after the events of The Hallowed Hunt), Alina reunites with husband Thorn. Both have uncanny connections: she has been made a saint by the Mother of Summer and he possesses an ancient wisdom boar. They must solve the problem faced by shamans: when one dies, unless another shaman releases the wisdom animal, the dying shaman's soul will be sundered from the gods. They have additional issues, such as reconciling after ten years, facing an attack on their town by the overlord, saving the town from famine and flood, and more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was driven to write The Mother's Tale because I was bugged by Ingrey's, Ijada's, and Fara's situation at the end of The Hallowed Hunt. I placed Jennifer Crusie characters in Lois McMaster Bujold's Weald, beginning a decade after the events of The Hallowed Hunt. Then I let the characters figure out the problem (they changed their minds several times). None of Bujold's characters appear in this story, although Biast and Hetwar are mentioned, as are the events of The Hallowed Hunt. I haven't written fiction before; this was lots of fun.

The Mother's Tale

Chapter 1 -- Day 1

 

 

"Men!" Alina fumed as she heard Kritsyn's yell and the rasp of the door catch as he strode into the chamber of the Mother's Mercy infirmary. _Five gods --  Daughter, Bastard, Mother, Father, Brother -- how dare he enter a Temple physician's room without leave?_ Alina's mop of tight black curls quivered, but she shook off evidence of her rising anger. Instead, Alina grasped her patient's shoulders gently, staring into the child's bewildered eyes, willing her to calm. The thin farm girl, unnecessarily scared silly under her menfolk's ignorance. Alina willed Kritsyn to go away. _Lout._

At least the girl, Pennz was the name she'd whispered, seemed to relax.

That left Kritsyn, the oaf.

"Alina! I need you! What are you doing?" Kritsyn bayed.

"Wait a moment." Alina spoke to Pennz, who silently agreed not to run from the presence of a man.

Alina faced Kritsyn, raising her eyebrows. "I'm busy, Captain kin Foxrun."

Confused, Kritsyn glanced around the small room. Alina wondered what he saw. The shelves of dried and potted herbs, ointments, and piles of clean rags? The desk with its few instruments? The wide-seated chair piled with comfortable cushions? She hoped he didn't notice the bloody rag thrown in the corner. She was annoyed that he didn't notice the girl at all.

"What is so vastly important that you interrupt when I'm seeing a patient?"

"Alina -- I'm back!" She forbore to point out that he'd only been away overnight.

Kritsyn continued. "I searched the forest and I'll be reporting in." He paused. "I came across a . . . strange man. Used to be a soldier of the hallow king. He reminds me of the strays you pick up." Kritsyn thought he'd made a joke. "Anyway, before I take him to the barracks, I wanted to see you."

Kritsyn shuffled like an overgrown puppy. Alina sighed. When Earl Velten kin Boarford had sent Kritsyn to lead the dockmaster's newly formed river guard troop a year ago, Kritsyn had come to the Mother's hospital in pain from a cyst. Alina had drained it, covered it in soothing ointment, and bandaged the wound. Kritsyn acted as if she'd saved his life.

Then someone -- anyone was possible in this tiny town -- told him that Alina's husband had been presumed dead these two years. And he'd been away fighting the eight years before that. And no child to solace the bereft widow. Kritsyn's image of himself leaped from supplicant to savior; instantly, he decided to marry Alina.

Alina allowed herself a mental shrug before staring down the six foot, handsome captain, generally admired for his thick blonde hair and broad shoulders. _Make eye contact and speak simply, as you do with other affectionate hounds,_ she reminded herself. "Captain, right now I am attending to a patient. I will be finished in a few minutes. Then I will come out to the infirmary courtyard."

Actually listening, Kritsyn nodded, suddenly caught sight of the girl, smiled, shrugged his strong shoulders, and turned for the door. For a second Alina felt his sweetness. _Why did he annoy her so much?_

Her attention back on Pennz, Alina made sure that the skinny, dark-haired child understood that the sudden, terrifying bleeding was normal for girls growing up. How to use the padding for the next few days. And to visit Alina again as soon as she could; Pennz's father and brothers certainly couldn't help her in these matters. But this time of year, when the river was its highest and whatever could grow needed planting, it might be difficult for the girl to leave her chores again. "You'll come back?" Pennz replied with a firm nod.  "Good. I'm happy to meet you, Pennz. You were right to come to me today."

Pennz slipped by Alina and out the door.

The bright sunlight of late spring in the courtyard of the infirmary dedicated to the Order of the Mother of Summer contrasted sharply with the soft dimness of the physician's chamber. Flowers were already blooming in the infirmary gardens, sharing their fragrances with a swarm of industrious bees. Past the central well, Alina squinted at Kritsyn's figure -- tall, solid, gesturing with a flourish as he addressed several brother soldiers. She straightened her physician-dedicat's braid on the shoulder of her green -- no, not a widow's dark green -- robe of the Mother of Summer's Order, commanding herself to be patient with the captain.

Alina noticed another man, taller than Kritsyn but very spare, white-blonde hair, and inhumanly still. Curious, she walked toward the stranger. His leathers, along with tall riding boots and long, light brown tunic over a leather jerkin were neat if worn; his sword hung properly: an impression of military precision. Then, rising shock, as she recognized bits of Thorn. Ready stance, quiet -- although not this preternatural stillness -- covert awareness. The man on the sidelines with all the answers, letting others parade their charm. Quickly, Alina signed herself, touching forehead, lip, navel, groin, and heart, theological points for each god.

Twenty feet away, fifteen, at ten feet away he moved his head and saw her. Thorn's face, thinner, older, worn. "Thorn," Alina breathed. But not Thorn's eyes. Alina had known those deep blue eyes for a third of her life: bright with curiosity, intense in concentration, dark in despair. The man she now faced had pale, empty eyes, lifeless or somehow retracting all self deep inward. Now blank towards her.

"Thorn," Alina repeated.

A slight dip of his head. "Sorry, Dedicat," a diffident twitch of his shoulders. He didn't know her.

Anger overtook Alina. _Five gods, don't tease me with this apparition. Ten years waiting. Dun said two years ago he believed Thorn was dead. But Dun wouldn't look me in the eyes, would he? Dun had lost his brother, or at least not found Thorn when he disappeared. So, Dun didn't really know, did he?_ Despite the fact that this soul-starved stranger deserved none of Alina's ire, her fury at her long loneliness suddenly overwhelmed her. She raised her arm to hit him with all the sorrow and bereavement of a decade.

Yet as she began to swing -- with the strength of a physician-dedicat and occasional veterinarian -- the man did not flinch; something flickered blue in the back of his eyes. He'd belied himself. Here was Thorn.

 _Thorn does not want to know me_. Alina blinked, dropped her arm, turned away. Was this despair? She'd never experienced an emotion more controlling than the anger which too often overwhelmed her. But this left her feeling detached, weak, pulverized.

Kritsyn said something, but Alina heard nothing as she walked away.

Kritsyn stood, annoyed. "What's the matter with her?"

The stranger stated, "She's the widow you plan to marry."

"Aye." Kritsyn rubbed his forehead. "I told you her sad story." He looked down at his hands, large and adept at swordplay. His voice softened. "Sometimes I suspect she finds me lacking. She knows so much. I don't even know any poems women find pleasing."

Kritsyn gazed at the stranger who had willingly listened to his hopes as they rode together. "Alina sings about the forests of the Old Weald. She painted the Mother's House with leafy designs where tiny animals hide." He waved towards the infirmary. "And she heals people. Like me. And injured animals." Kritsyn frowned and pursed his lips. "I wish she wouldn't nurse the dogs."

He looked up at his stranger. "That's why I wanted you to meet her. In case you needed a cure."

The thin wayfarer almost grimaced, but proffered a slight smile instead. "My friend, I have no need of a physician. Perhaps, instead, I can repay you for your kindness in bringing me to your town." He offered the sense of a smile again. "I know a song or two of the Old Weald."

Kritsyn grinned. He reached to pat his new friend on the shoulder, but changed the movement to gesture towards the river guard's barracks. "Let me find a place for you tonight. Meet some good fellows. There's a fine tavern down by the docks."

The stranger nodded.

"But, first," Kritsyn smiled apologetically. "You haven't told me your name."

Again, the smile that wasn't a smile. "You can call me Troynt."

 

###########################################################################

 

Alina's cousin Lord Besoin kin Falconcrest lived in a tall, spacious wooden house, whose faded white and red paint scheme pleasantly complemented the decorations on the few other old, stately homes squeezed between the castle and the five-sided Temple, whose complex of buildings included the Daughter of Summer's school, the Mother's infirmary, and the offices of the Temple divine. Besoin had brought Alina with him twenty years earlier when he escorted Rike kin Hartdale to her marriage with widowed castlemaster Xan kin Boarford. Besoin ignored the locals' surprise -- including Lord Xan's -- when he then settled himself and his famed library in Southfield. Besoin's young wife Cilla had already grown close to Rike, a friendship ended only with Cilla's death on the birth of her younger child. Rike and Alina shared the mothering of Besoin's two girls.

Ten years old when she moved to Southfield, Alina found a friend her age in Xan's youngest son Thorn, while Besoin sought out the Temple divine for long discussions, sent and received messages by couriers so often as to seem regularly, and, to all appearances, read his volumes.

Usually, Alina stopped at her cousin's study, but today she quickly climbed to the attic, her refuge. Except for the briefly right after her marriage when she and Thorn lived in the castle, and except for the time when her medical studies took her to Suttleaf, the attic had belonged to Alina.

Back when Thorn's father Xan dramatically threw them out of the castle, Thorn used a block and tackle to hoist the trunk of a massive oak up to the back room. Probably no one remembered now, but he'd removed a section of wall in order to fit the huge, heavy chunk of wood inside. He spent months hewing out the center which, piled with pillows and blankets, created a heaven for love-making. Stunning, detailed carvings on the head, foot, and outer sides showed ships laden with exotic cargo that sailed across billowing seas; fields awash in ripe grain tickled the broad wings of birds in flight; castles with high turrets aspired to the sky; and the gods, half-obscured by curtains, watching all.

Alina strode back and forth across the front room, trying to comprehend why Thorn would refuse to recognize her. Why then had he returned to Southfield? Why did he look -- not exactly dead, but hopeless?

Alina seldom prayed. She pretended that her actions spoke more than her devotions, but in truth she felt outcast from the Mother, the Goddess of healing and nurturing. When as a newlywed she had prayed for a child, she'd, instead, lost her husband. When she prayed for Thorn's return, or even news of him, there was none. Why did the Mother abandon her? Alina acknowledged the goddess's hand in many small miracles in the infirmary. Without question, the Mother blessed Alina's work. So Alina worked as diligently as she could towards treating the ill, calming the frightened, and comforting the dying. But she did not pray. She furiously did not pray.

Stopping by the window, she caught sight of the ancient, wild forests beyond Southfield. Southwest in the curve of the river, marshes were deep in spring runoff. Southwest mountains climbed to snowy peaks. They held strong against the ravages of drought and flood that made Southfield's name a parody. No more fertile farms; the town's wealth now depended on river traffic.  A tinge of surprise swept Alina as she realized that she felt a greater affinity for the old traditions of the forests and mountains than for the new Weald, as represented by this town. For a second she felt somehow a renegade or traitor to her physician-dedicat's braid. Yet, after all, the folk of the Old Weald had worshipped the same gods, and the Mother Herself chose to be identified by the color green: the Goddess loved nature, especially the flourishing world of summer.

As she readied herself for dinner, Alina glanced in her small mirror. Large dark eyes, soft skin for a woman no longer at her girlish prime, black curls that spiraled tightly, springing out of control. Straightening her arm, the glass discovered her body, rounded like a matron's. Motherly. _Hmmph._ Alina shook her head, straightened her physician-dedicat's braid on her robe, and trudged down to dinner.

 

#############################################################################

 

Besoin kept a formality of service and quality of cuisine that smacked of uppity, city-bred gentry to the folk of Southfield but assured him of having all invitations accepted. This night no guests graced his table, leaving the widower with Alina and his younger daughter, twelve-year-old Kirsa. His older daughter Lupeen, happily married to an attentive lord of kin Badgerbrook, lived northeast several hundred miles in a land of fens.

Besoin's eyebrows raised as Alina entered the dining room, but he waited until young red-headed maid Pila and wide-eyed page Udo had presented the dishes and left the family alone.

"Hmm. . . " he said quietly. "What's wrong, Alina?"

Alina shrugged. She didn't want to talk about Thorn. Mother of Summer, she couldn't talk about Thorn while he refused to recognize her. She temporized. "A farm girl came today, terrified by her first monthly bleeding. Her mother's dead." Alina's voice hardened even as she tried to control her agitation. "Of course, she couldn't go to her father and brothers. For all I know, she'll be punished for leaving her chores to come see me."

Alina burst out. "I can't stand the men around here. They ignore the effects of the drought even when more peasants abandon their holdings and beg for work at the docks. They're just blind!" She stopped, surprised at how close she was to crying.

Besoin grunted and broke a roll. "I shall ignore your aspersions on my gender," he waggled his bushy eyebrows. "As for your other concerns, Lord Xan, bless the dead, spent his long life convincing people that water, fish, timber were here for the taking. It's easier to believe such arrogance when there's an abundance. Only one man ever dared advise Xan otherwise." He looked directly at her. She knew he spoke of Thorn. "By the way, did Captain kin Foxrun return from his foray?"

Kirsa piped up. "Marlis and I saw him at the market. And he brought a gray man with him." At the inquisitive stares, she ducked her head. "That's what he looked like. I didn't get close."

Besoin glanced at Alina, for certainly Kritsyn would have spoken with her, but Alina avoided his look. Besoin sighed. "Well, Earl Boarford certainly sent the right sort of man in the captain, if he wanted a review of the natural wonders of the forest we could handily strip. I hope Kritsyn only seeks the easy pickings."

This was strong talk: Lord Xan kin Boarford had died two years earlier; his son Dun succeeded him, but died a month ago. Earl Boarford sent an inquirer all the way from Easthome to report on the state of the castlemastership. Alina knew Besoin's opinion that the Inquirer was far more concerned with acquiring taxable sources of wealth than broadening his understanding of Southfield and its problems.

Kirsa slipped from her chair so she could press up against Alina. Alina wrapped her arm around the child. "Something feels wrong," Kirsa whispered to Alina, letting her father hear. "In the forest. Or the forest itself." Kirsa's tone was so serious that Alina suddenly envisioned a deep forest of tall, tall slender trees. Occasional rays of sunlight lit the moss-covered branches. The blue-grey light felt moist, as if in sorrow. Then the trees, branches, and light shook, and the image disappeared. Kirsa had slipped out of the room, and Besoin looked at Alina in concern.

 

##############################################################################

 

That night Alina dreamed of the forest. At first the scene resembled the vision Kirsa had inspired. Then a woman's voice sang. Her voice was strong and pure, entirely unlike the sentimental cooing of the songs Alina knew. Although Alina couldn't make out the words, she saw life return to the forest. Her view focused, so that she saw -- or knew -- the animals, plants, and even tiny bits of matter, all living, all in motion. Alina tried to capture the exotic melody and rhythm of the song, but she only gleaned that it involved beauty and power and rapture. Then, with a hum, the song stopped, the scene fell in on itself into darkness, and Alina awoke.

She lay, wide awake, missing the singing voice as an abandoned child misses its mother. _I am completely alone. Thorn is further from me now than when I feared him dead. I've lost. I'm lost._ Even as she turned the words over in her mind, they disintegrated into meaningless patterns. _Oh, Mother, I have dried up and blown away. Take me. Use me._

 

############################################################################

Day 2

 

Alina strode to the Temple infirmary so early that objects still blurred in her vision. Perhaps working would help order her disconnected thoughts.

As she entered the empty courtyard, in the half light she spied a creature scrunched by a door. Alina assumed that a wounded wild animal had come for treatment; such animals found her. The deer with a deep gouge in its shoulder; the jay with the bent wing. She squatted beside the dark lump and saw it was a young red fox, barely more than a kit. Alina slowly reached to touch the animal; it shivered, but let her run her hands over it. No wounds, but its belly was oddly distended. Alina frowned, suspecting poison. Despite warnings about the unintended damage possible, some farmers were convinced that small woodland animals were adding to the poor soil or discouraging larger game; they set toxic herbs as bait. The very young were especially susceptible. Alina's anger grew. "Men!" she grunted.

Carefully, Alina picked up the kit in her robe and carried it inside, settling it on a clean rag. She mixed herbs that, while not an exact antidote, would calm the fox's stomach and let it sleep while the toxin passed through its system. Alina ground them with a mortar and pestle, then mixed in a little clear water. She rubbed the paste onto a clean bit of cloth, squeezed the fox's mouth open with her right hand, and pressed the cloth inside its lips and along its teeth. Light shone through the open doorway by the time the baby fox had suckled the medicine and relaxed into sleep.

"Dedicat?" Alina's maid-turned-acolyte stood in the doorway. Gentle Rona had arrived at the Mother's hospital so ill that her family had considered saving the cost of treatment in order to pay for her funeral. Instead, Alina had nursed her to health over many months. Rona first became Alina's maid; at fourteen she became an acolyte of the infirmary.

Now Rona awaited permission to enter the chamber.

"Yes, oh good, Rona, I'm glad you're here." Rona smiled softly when Alina showed her the baby fox. "Would you stay here in case anyone comes by? I need to return this baby to its mother before she loses its smell."

Gentle Rona's smile deepened. "I wish I could keep it like a real baby." She caught that she'd said something odd, so she quickly continued, "If anyone comes, I'll send them to Learned Kilda. She'll know what to do." Alina smiled, carefully picked up and cradled the tiny fox in her arms. Rona held a basket so that Alina could slide in the tiny being.

 

##############################################################################

 

Sparse woods backed the side of town where the Temple complex, houses of the well-to-do, and castle shied away from the merchants' homes and bustling shops and the docks. Choosing this way to the deep woods that bordered the western and southern banks of the river, Alina stood little chance of encountering anyone.

Unlike the forest of her dream, these woods comprised first bracken, then large, old oaks and maples and a few stands of birches, all spaced far apart as the result of timber cutting and hunting parties. Now in late spring, trees had sprouted pale new leaves; although the limited rainfall this year limited new growth, the Daughter's season still charmed. Blueberry, red currant, and gooseberry bushes filled in the packed dirt and stony spaces. Cuckoos and titmice called, and Alina glimpsed several swallows and a wren.

As the path twisted south, it rose with the land; first aspens, then tightly spaced pines  replaced the deciduous trees. More berry bushes throve in the few patches open to sunlight, and small plants grew alongside the path. Ferns, mosses, tiny thyme and savory, as well as blooming mayflowers, violets, and wild iris. Alina absorbed the forest's tastes, smells, and scents all together. Warmth, soft delicious scents of sweetness and earth, active life on the periphery just hidden from view. The forest exuded promise.

A sudden whiff of indescribable beauty such as Alina had never known before was followed by a _Presence_ , and the Goddess stood before her, warm, caring, majestic. Luxuriantly full dark hair caught in a glittering web of net, her generous breasts and hips swelled in a smooth green gown. Falling back from her shoulders, a gleaming surcoat floated as sunlight catches mist off water. Breathlessly bright, the Mother of Summer smiled at Alina. "Greetings, my dear. I meet you as you cross to the place of the ancients." Alina felt her joints weaken, unsure whether to fall at the goddess' feet.

"Why do you appear to me? I'm not even a mother." Embarrassed by her outburst, Alina's frustration rose. "I'm not worthy of your attention." Not said in supplication, Alina spat out the words bitterly.

The  Mother's smile softened. "My child, your anger is a strength if you learn to use it well. You care for all who suffer affliction, healing many, comforting when there is no hope for cure. You know work." The Goddess's lips quirked up, "and I have work for you."

Oh, no. Alina thought. I shouldn't have spoken.

The Mother's gaze focused sharply. "The ancient wisdom ways of men have fractured from the ways of the gods. Someone (Alina felt that she was the focus of that "one") needs to bring again the ancient ways into harmony with the gods."

Alina considered the magnitude of this suggestion. The ways of the Old Weald had been powerful indeed; so much so that when the Darthacans invaded, they focused on destroying all signs of the wisdom beliefs. Four thousand spirit warriors had been put to death in a grotesque massacre. Shamans had been hunted down and butchered. The spirit animals, created carefully over many generations, had been destroyed. What wasn't eradicated of the old ways had deteriorated under propaganda and re-education. Many Temples, in fact, threatened to burn anyone found possessed of an animal spirit. For all that Alina sensed the old ways in the far removed outpost of Southfield, she knew that most people considered them long dead and gone.

"I thought the gods wished to eradicate the shamans," she ventured.

The Goddess clasped her hands. "The gods cannot admit a soul that harbors an animal spirit. Such is a terrible thing because," she smiled, and Alina received another breath of inestimable scent, "we ache to receive souls at death." She paused again. "Yet humans, born into the world of matter, need a deep tie to nature."

"My child," her tone a sea of calm, "enter the Old World in such a way that it can strengthen the New." She leaned towards Alina, giving her a kiss on the forehead. And she was gone.

Sharp light. Alina blinked, tried to refocus her eyes. The world had altered. Alina now saw bits of life she had merely sensed before. Ants crawling on a fallen branch. Honey bees patrolling the clover. A fox approached cautiously, stopping in front of Alina to drop her head on her forepaws. Just as formally, Alina lifted the sleeping kit from her basket and set it before its mother. The kit awoke to its mother's gentle nudge. The two returned sedately to the trees.

 _What just happened?_ Alina settled on an old stump after three mottled green beetles scooted out of her way.

 _What am I supposed to do?_ Alina knew too little about Old Weald traditions. And attitudes were changing quickly. The same year she married Thorn, then Prince-Marshall Biast was elected to succeed his father as hallow king. Rumors spread that there were shamans about; that, in fact, Biast's own sister possessed an animal's spirit. But the unfortunate woman was no shaman. Alina almost spat in frustration over her own ignorance.

Well, she would need to find answers. Then she would need to discover some connection to any remaining practitioners of the old ways.

Reflecting on the forest around her, Alina realized that Southfield was the furthest settlement in the kingdom. The forest edging up and beyond her was one of the oldest known. No one had explored even the extent of the Stork River, assuming there was nothing strategic beyond. Somewhere there might be a link to the South Seas, but the Lure River provided access to the ocean and southern areas of ship-building and island-dwelling people. This virgin forest, Alina mockingly smiled to herself, represented the last place for the unextinguished bit of the Old Weald to inhabit. If any survived at all.

Rising to her feet, thoughts clear again despite the uncomfortable awareness her new sight gave her, Alina headed back to town.

 

#############################################################################

 

As she strode between the oaks, Alina felt a wave of grief shake her. Back to town and the empty hulk which once was Thorn. She wondered if he had moved on yet. He could hardly enjoy being unknown in his own home town.

Not that Southfield would mean home to Thorn after his father's cruel expulsion. During the decade she had known and loved Thorn, Xan's disparagement of his youngest born was bitter and public. Alina recognized Thorn's skill in deciphering texts in foreign languages or in designing irrigation ditches for the then still fertile fields. Xan, however, equated study with philosophical arrogance and engineering with snivelling idiots. For Alina, marriage to her best friend had enlarged her experience of life to include passion; Xan had merely allowed his failed child the boon of choosing a wife. Nothing would work out while Xan and Thorn lived close to each other. A month married and an argument over timber clearing ended in Xan ordering Thorn from the castle.

On their first anniversary Alina saw Thorn ride away from Southfield under his brother Dun's banner to fight for then Prince-Marshall Biast. The argument that precipitated the permanent break was Thorn's insistence that Xan rebuild the Temple, recently demolished in a fire, and provide aid to Southfield's devastated inhabitants. Xan proclaimed that Thorn remove himself from his father's sight forever. Even though Dun returned occasionally over the next eight years, Thorn was permanently banned. He disappeared; Dun returned to the dying Xan's side, already showing evidence of the wasting disease that slowly killed him. Xan never asked about his youngest son. Dun would not have had an answer.

Dun confided to Alina that his troop's successes had relied heavily on Thorn's strategies and planning. Yet, while Dun had enjoyed the camaraderie of Biast's officers, Thorn made several friends but preferred designing buildings to siege engines. That Thorn didn't relish military life cast further confusion on his disappearance; certainly, he hadn't left to join another campaign. Kidnapped? No ransom had been demanded. Another woman? Not possible, Dun insisted; he offered to provide Alina with testimony from their fellow officers. Thorn's songs of Alina had often left them teary with memories their waiting loved ones.

Dun was a month dead; his step-mother was ably holding the castle during the inquiry. Rike had gained some of the objectives Thorn sought from his father. Surprisingly soon after Dun and Thorn's departure, Rike convinced Xan to build a larger, more beautiful, and eminently more practical wooden Temple and outbuildings on the site of the burned wreck. Rike discovered resources, apparently with help from Besoin's connections, that paid for an expanded infirmary. Employment was full and pay good during the years of construction, helping mask the disaster of the now fallow fields. It didn't occur to Xan that his banished son had been right.

 

############################################################################

 

By the time Alina returned to the hospital, it was past midday. Alina walked slowly, trying to assimilate the changes in her vision. She could see and sense more of each person now;  the gentle geniality of an old crofter, sitting out his days in the sun, or the twittering activity of a teenage girl off to share secrets with her friends. The depth of a person's spirit was entirely different from the public signs of age and status. She was going to have to get used to this.

People were loosely congregated in the Temple square outside the infirmary courtyard. Kritsyn waved to Alina, calling across from the other side of the square. His public display of ownership over her had gone too far, but she would be embarrassed if she confronted him now. She aimed for the infirmary, but he waylaid her.

"Alina? Where were you? I needed you to help Troynt." At Alina's puzzled frown, Kritsyn explained, "The stranger -- he was attacked --"

"What!" Alina interrupted.

"Attacked this morning --"

"Is he hurt? Where is he?"

"Alina," Kritsyn said cheerfully, pleased to be the man to inform her and assuage her fears. "Stop interrupting me. At least three ruffians jumped Troynt outside the barracks. He fought them off, but ended up with a gash in his left arm and a knock on his head."

"Where is he?"

"Right over there --" Kritsyn pointed towards the well in the infirmary courtyard. "I sent for you, but you'd disappeared." He allowed himself a bit of a pout. "Learned Kilda bandaged him up." Alina peered around Kritsyn's shoulder. It was difficult to separate people while she was unaccustomed to her vision, but she knew that Thorn -- Troynt? -- was there.

"Anyway, Troynt is all right now." Kritsyn took a deep breath and grasped her elbow. "Here. Sit down." He dragged her to a bench alongside the building. "It's time for _us_."

"Captain," Alina began.

"No. Listen," Kritsyn clearly was trying to sound intimate, but was finding it difficult because he was excited. "Alina. Please."

Alina sat, basket in her lap, distracted by the extra brightness of her new sight, and stretched by concerns which were far more compelling than Kritsyn's.

"I've written you a poem." Kritsyn announced. His voice rose, catching people's attention.

His wave dismissing her embarrassment caught the attention of bystanders. Flipping open a piece of paper, Kritsyn read his poem aloud.

Through her growing fury, Alina heard the most perfect poem of love she had ever known. Its speaker recounted his soul's journey through wasteland, bereft of his love. The sojourn continued through sorcery and temptation until, finally . . .

Alina stood, flung the basket away, and ripped the paper from Kritsyn's hands. His jaw dropped, his hands remaining in the air where he'd held the poem.

"Thief!" Alina growled at him and marched across the square in search of Kritsyn's mysterious acquaintance. Thorn wasn't difficult to find; in fact, his spirit was deepened with something else. His appearance in Alina's god-touched sight incited her fury even more.

She strode up to him, shaking the paper in his face. "A poem to me? How dare you pawn the poem you wrote for me!" Dropping her arm, she deliberately drew so close that she was yelling in his face. "Thorn kin Boarford. Coward. You are worse than the toad Kritsyn kin Foxrun. You are running away from your castle, your people, and," she choked, "your wife."

Only Alina could see Thorn's soul roil, and his inner density swell; to other observers, he merely became extremely attentive, his eyes narrowed into slits, and, if anything, he stood taller. "I have no wish to disrupt your life . . .  Dedicat."

"Alina," she growled. "Five gods, you had better call me by my name."

Thorn's lip quivered, as if forced to surrender. "Alina," he said very gently.

Gazing at his gaunt face, she cried, "You haven't changed in ten years. Mother of Summer, help me," she groaned, and shielded her face with her hands.

People's attention, riveted on Kritsyn, then Alina, now shifted to Thorn. What had begun as a charged and very entertaining interlude had shifted into a major event involving the ruling family of the town.

Kritsyn trudged up, bewildered by Alina's reaction to the poem and the accusation she leveled at Thorn.

"Troynt?" he began, then stopped.

"Apologies. My deepest apologies, Captain." Thorn spoke as if he regretted making the admission. "I . . .  Let me introduce myself truly. I am Thorn Troynt kin Boarford. My father Xan kin Boarford and brother Dun were castlemasters here." Thorn nodded toward the castle. "I have been absent for . . .  a very long time."

Kritsyn paled. He drew himself up to salute. "My lord."

Thorn turned his palm outward towards Kritsyn. While the gesture had no specific meaning, it drew everyone's eyes. Xan's wave; Dun's wave. Casual gesture of overlordship. When had Thorn acquired this natural command?

Thorn leaned close. "Alina?" He asked tentatively.

She tried to stop sobbing. She hurt all over. She couldn't stop shaking.

Kritsyn cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Thorn looked at him. "Captain, you were not aware that I was living."

"No sir."

"And your . . . attraction to my wife was so compelling that I myself was impressed." Thorn stared at the ground, frowning. "However, Captain, I sincerely regret deceiving you and my wife by giving you a poem I had written for her many years ago."

"You didn't deceive me for a minute!" Alina gasped huskily, chagrined.

Thorn glanced at her briefly, uncertain of his welcome. When she didn't hit him, he relaxed slightly. "Can you walk? Up to the castle? With me?"

She nodded and tried to rise. He slid a hand under her elbow. They walked through the quiet crowd. Alina suspected that while all enjoyed the drama, few understood it.

Taking a deep breath, Alina stared ahead and declared, "You think you merely face people who don't remember you. Things here are much worse than that."

After a minute, Thorn replied, "I doubt I'm the right person to set things right."

Alina spat, "Then this time you'll get to risk death trying."

Thorn shrugged, "I believed that this morning."

"Thorn, what really happened this morning?"

He glanced around. "We'll talk about that later."

"Thorn. You know as well as I do that we're speaking of uncanny things."

Thorn startled and stared at her. "Alina."

Alina stopped, faced him, and willed him to look her in the eyes. "Thorn, I can see your soul. A shadow is there."

His eyes widened. He whispered, "How do you know?"

"The Mother of Summer gave me the sight."

Thorn made as if to push his hair from his forehead in a gesture she'd known since he was ten years old. His hair wasn't long enough to fall in his eyes now. "We must talk. This . . . has been awful."

Alina looked at the man she'd loved first and forever. He was thin and helpless and uncertain. And dependent on her.

"First we will visit your step-mother. Then we'll talk with my cousin." Her voice had the certainty Thorn's had always had when they made plans. Both heard it. Thorn nodded.

 

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Rike recognized Thorn so quickly Alina wondered if someone had at least tentatively identified Kritsyn's stranger already. A tiny, sleek woman, blonde hair pulled back tightly in a bun covered with lace netting and dressed in a flowing mourning gown of black with violet trim, Rike hugged Thorn tightly before kissing him on both cheeks. "My dear, dear son!" She made herself tall; oddly, an easy task because her personality so exceeded her stature. "Thorn kin Boarford, my last son. Welcome home." She made obeisance as if he were already castlemaster.

"But, step-mother --"

"None of that. Come in and tell me what happened to you all these years." She smiled kindly at Alina, "You must not have had any time yet with your husband. Do come in now." Her smile twisted into a sad grimace. "You and your family have supported me through sorrow upon sorrow."

Castle Southfield was a large complex, surprisingly regular because it was built on flatland. The citadel was square with towers at the corners and at the main entrance on the west side and another on the south side facing the Temple. The fortress had never been attacked, but had been destroyed by floods several times. As a result, there were no outer walls, and the inner walls were stone rather than the wood typical of the Weald. The main structures, including the guardhouse, barracks for the castle troops, and family quarters were also walled in stone. Wells stood above ground, and the plumbing system was more advanced than any other aspect of the stronghold. Castle Southfield provided a bastion against nature rather than attacking warriors.

Rike settled into a well-cushioned chair in her solar, waving Thorn and Alina to sit. She must have been curious about their feelings on their reunion; indeed, each was in turmoil. They ended up sitting on either side of Thorn's step-mother. Twenty when Besoin brought her to this isolated outpost, Rike understood her duty to nurture Xan's ten- and twelve-year-old sons. More than that, she was affectionate and temperate, unlike her husband. Xan's pride in his young wife, and Rike's gracious if subtle handling of her lord, resulted in a surprising number of reforms concerning alms to the poor, support of the infirmary, and endowment of the Temple. However, Rike could not forestall the devastating arguments between Xan and Thorn, nor could she convince her obdurate lord to temper his anger.

Xan's oldest son, a page at the court in the capital city of Easthome, died of fever in the first years after Rike moved to Southfield. In the recent past Xan had died, and Dun had returned home only to waste away slowly and agonizingly. Rike had developed great control over her emotions over the years, but clearly now she was overflowing with feelings at the sight of Thorn. Anxiety, hope, love, and perhaps trepidation flitted across her features.

Servants brought in wine and savories. Alina realized she hadn't eaten since last evening's supper. Thorn, too, ate as if starving. Alina tried to ascertain whether he was looking less grey. It was difficult to tell now that she was aware of the addition to his spirit. Also, while Alina was comfortable with Rike, Kirsa generally accompanied her on visits, and when she came alone, Alina and Rike avoided Thorn's name by tacit agreement. Now she sensed his presence acutely.

Rike raised her eyebrows at Thorn in invitation. He looked helpless. "Come now, son. Start at the end. How did you find yourself on the road home?"

Thorn pinched his lips, then sighed. "I ran out of other places to go." He looked at Alina. "You're right, I kept running away. Then, three weeks ago in Darthaca, I heard that Dun was terribly sick. I had no idea." Thorn looked down at his hands, turning them over as if wondering why they were useless. He looked at Rike. "So I came."

Rike stared at him hard. "And why didn't you visit me yesterday?"

Thorn answered deliberately. "I met a young soldier -- Captain kin Foxrun -- where the south road fork ends at the main road. He was full of the story of a widow he planned to marry." Alina gasped. Thorn turned to her. "He is full of enthusiasm and dreams. He believes in the future. He loves you."

Rike tutted softly. Alina sucked in her breath. "I don't like Kritsyn -- your Captain. He has virtues, I suppose, but I none of them appeal to me. In fact," she roiled with anger, "I don't like men. Any of them!"

Both Thorn and Rike smiled, which incited Alina more. "Thorn, I could have killed you yesterday! You broke my heart!"

Thorn nodded gravely. "I thought you had the chance for something . . . real and living. I thought I was too damaged to take my place in the family and too . . .  that I was past the point where I could be a real husband."

Rike looked from Thorn to Alina and suddenly bestirred herself. "Well. I will notify Earl Boarford's inquirer that we must meet immediately." Thorn started to gesture, but a frown from Rike stopped him. "There are proper steps and appropriate channels, Thorn, whatever your feelings may be. Now, you have other things to attend to. Consult Besoin. He'll advise you. Let's see. We'll meet the Reto Rugen here, tomorrow morning. Be prompt, son." She rose, brooked no further remonstrances from Thorn, and nodded them out.

Thorn and Alina started down the stairs to leave the castle. Each was embarrassingly aware of the other, neither knowing how to mend ten years' separation. Alina began, "So you --" at the same time Thorn said, "Why --" then both stopped. "This is awful," Alina groaned. That made Thorn smile. "You know, Alina, when you get angry at the world, I feel that you're the same as always and that everything's all right."

"Nothing's all right," Alina declared emphatically.

Thorn stopped. "Just a minute. What is going on? Why on earth did you declare that you hate men? Does the blonde captain bother you so much?"

"No. And just who is Troynt?"

"A giant boar from the stories of an island people in the South Ocean." He gazed at her, then said with decision, "Let's talk with your cousin."

 

############################################################################

 

Besoin seemed neither startled, nor, surprisingly, overly pleased, when Alina brought Thorn to his study. Hemmed in by shelves and piles of books, maps, and papers, Besoin's defended his cave with his massive form; he looked over his half-glasses at them, then sighed, then grunted. He put away his pen and ink and blotters and papers before saying anything.

"So you've decided to acknowledge your marriage, my boy?" he growled. Then, as if catching himself in an indiscreet remark, he continued, "I'm relieved that you're back. You're needed here. Badly." He scowled, but stopped Alina or Thorn from speaking. "Be that as it may be. Dinner awaits. I _am_ glad to see you." He ushered them into the dining room.

Alina introduced him to Kirsa, who'd been a baby when he'd left. Kirsa tilted her head at him and remarked, "You are still a gray man. But your edges are clearer." Everyone looked surprised, so Kirsa retreated quickly to her chair.

"Thorn," Besoin asked, as the page Udo and red-haired Pila served the dishes. "Did you spend any time at Easthome on your travels?"

"Ah," he responded, "I can tell you about the barracks and the military drills, but I didn't  talk with divines at the Temple or listen to the political rumors."

Kirsa said, "Tell us about the hallow king."

Thorn thought before speaking. "I haven't spent appreciable time in Easthome for years now, but Hallow King Biast impressed me each time I saw him." He glanced at Alina, "Dun and I fought under the then Prince-Marshall when we left here." A shade flitted over his features, perhaps a thought back to his leave-taking. "We attended the celebrations in Easthome when Biast assumed the kingship. An impressive leader: he immediately promoted reforms on all sides. His vigor in rooting out corruption even at the highest levels could have included Sealmaster Lord Hetwar; fortunately, Hetwar recognized a new era and adapted to it." Thorn smiled sardonically. "A man of quick responses, our Sealmaster."

"Do you mean Lord Hetwar is undermining the king's power?" Alina asked.

"Quite the opposite. The Sealmaster mirrors the morals of his king; he finds that political savvy is just as entertaining when dealing in a straightforward and honest manner as it was when he could send a bravo with a purse to obtain a lord -- or archdivine's -- vote."

A thoughtful silence ensued while the dishes were removed, the adults recalling Archdivine Fritine kin Boarford who had continued to favor his family despite the hallow king's vow to end corruption; ultimately, King Biast, working with members of the Temple, had arranged an early retirement for the most influential member of the Boarford clan. "Did the archdivine's ignominy extend to you?" Besoin queried.

"Not at all," answered Thorn. "Dun and I were treated very hospitably by the court. The hallow king himself acknowledged us. There was never any indication of a problem."

Besoin stared from under bushy eyebrows. "You speak of ten years ago. We are waiting to hear about your more recent history. What happened when Dun apparently lost you?" He suddenly pulled his chair back and spread his arm out. "No, not here. Let's retire to the fireside."

Thorn looked as if he would refuse to continue, but he suddenly shrugged and followed the rest to Besoin's study. Besoin seated himself in his large, comfortable chair while Thorn and Alina found equally comfortable, if smaller, seats, and Kirsa curled up on the hearthrug. Besoin eyed Thorn. "Now, go on."

Thorn paused, looking inward. "It was all very odd. We were sent to clean out some pirates along the coast in South Ibra. There weren't many, but they'd become a nuisance. Fears were that the Roknari would use them to send spies further south into Darthaca and the Weald. Dun commanded about twenty troops, which should have been more than sufficient. These were seasoned men who'd served together for close to a year. In fact, we'd had some successes which made us pretty well off." He shifted position in his chair.

"In what should have been a minor foray, I held the northern side to keep any pirates from escaping while the mass of our troops went straight for their boats which were supposedly stored in a cave along the beach. Reports said there were only ten water raiders. But more than that jumped me from behind." His face soured. "I never drew my blade."

"You were kidnapped?" Alina asked, remembering Dun.

Thorn shook his head. "Not in the regular way. I mean, these fellows had no intention of ransoming me. Although they roughed me up some, they were clearly sent to capture me alive."

"What happened next?" Kirsa breathed.

At that moment Alina saw Kirsa's round eyes. "Oh. Sweetling, this story is not for your ears."

Besoin nodded, then appeared to reconsider. "Thorn, this is for you to say. Should Kirsa listen to what happened to you?"

Thorn looked completely lost. He gazed at Kirsa as if she -- an innocent if curious twelve-year-old -- were some sort of magic spirit. Kirsa, on the other hand, hadn't consistently charmed her father's friends for nothing. She sighed despondently, stood up with a hangdog droop to her head, and approached Thorn. Placing her hands on his knee, Kirsa leaned against the side of his chair. "I'll never be able to sleep if I don't  know the end of the story," she commented softly.

Alina laughed. "You know the end of the story, dear one. Thorn is home now." And surprised herself by how true that was and how happy she was. Thorn looked at her in similar wonder.

Besoin's eyes twinkled. "I see you haven't spent your time gaining experience in women's wiles, Thorn. Be honest; should the child stay?"

Thorn looked at Kirsa with a mix of warmth and suspicion. "Well, if I'm the gray man to Kirsa, she can probably understand as much of my tale as I comprehend myself."

Kirsa smiled triumphantly and slid down to Thorn's feet, leaning back on her elbows so that she could see his face.

"Where did the pirates take you?" Kirsa prompted.

"I wasn't sure at the time. Now I think it was the central mountains in Yiss. I was trussed up and blindfolded. They tossed me across a mule." Thorn frowned. "They were afraid of being caught, so we only traveled at night and off the main roads -- not that many main roads head that way.

"After we climbed fairly high up, we came to a campground. My captors were expecting to meet people there, presumably to be paid for kidnapping me. The area was empty, so I was unpacked from my mule and the pirates settled down.

"Just before break of day, we were startled by yells and screams as men came rushing into the clearing. Everything was over in minutes: they killed every one of my captors. I remember being surprised that they spared me; the melee was so crazed it seemed impossible they could avoid hacking me to bits."

Besoin narrowed his eyes. "They didn't want to pay the pirates?"

Thorn shook his head slowly. "They cut every tie between Dun and me. They made sure no one would find me." His eyes darkened. "And they made sure I wouldn't want to be found."

Alina's brow furrowed. "Who were they?"

Thorn looked at the fire. "The two I saw close up were dressed as the warriors of the Old Weald. Naked to the waist, torsos covered with painted magical designs. The sorts you see carved on ancient stones."

Alina gasped. "But the last such warriors died four hundred years ago."

Kirsa asked, "Don't people like to study the old ways? The music is pretty."

Besoin made a disgusted sound. "There's a difference between exploring the history of ancient times and running around adorned with paint. These were lunatics."

"I think they were carrying out a plan," Thorn replied. "But in the past two years I haven't been able to decide why they simply didn't kill me."

"What did they do to you?" Kirsa breathed.

Thorn looked down at the child and paused. "They had a shaman, one of the strangest men I've ever seen; he had big, floppy ears and one arm was missing below the elbow. He chanted the ancient rites. And, they had a young boar." The adults drew in their breaths, fearing what Thorn would say next. "They -- I -- sacrificed the boar. Its spirit . . .  flew . . .  into me."

Besoin shook his jowls. Kirsa crawled over to Alina's arms.

Alina stared at Thorn. Inside him, the density that was an addition to his spirit. "How did you learn to use it?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Besoin demanded, more shocked at Alina than at Thorn. Besoin intertwined his fingers, shaking his head.

Thorn favored Alina with a half smile. "It wasn't easy. When I . . . came to, maybe a day later, I didn't know what had happened to me. I wasn't sure whether the boar or my spirit was in the ascendancy." He shook his head sadly. "That is why I haven't dared return home."

 

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Besoin, cradling Kirsa in his arms, headed off to bed, arguing that it was far too late to hear more of Thorn's story just then. There would be the morning, he reminded his daughter, although he looked disappointed himself.

Thorn and Alina were left staring at the glowing coals in the fireplace.

Thorn said seriously, "Alina. I don't know -- I know I'm defiled. I know that the boar is a part of me now." He looked at her, then looked down again. "I think I shouldn't be here. I didn't mean to return."

Alina looked at him, equally seriously. "You think you're no longer tied to your home? You don't belong here? You're not needed? You don't need _me_?" Alina reminded herself, _I'm not giving you up, Thorn._ "You're telling me that you have lost your essence in adding the wisdom boar to your soul?"

His lips twisted in pain. "I have no place here."

She nodded thoughtfully. Then bestirred herself to push ashes over the coals, bedding the fire.

"Do you wish to sleep with me tonight?" Thorn asked softly.

Alina tilted her head, as if to contemplate. "Hmmm . . .  Yes. Oh, I've made some changes, too. Just head up to the third floor guest room. Our bed's there now."

"What!" Thorn gasped. "Not our bed!" As his shock increased, he seemed to expand before her; she could see the shifting shape inside him grow. He's going to kill me, she thought.

"Woman! What have you done?!" Thorn raged. Alina could hear running footsteps as Thorn began to lunge at her. She stepped back, defending herself with the fireplace poker.

"Thorn -- stop!" she cried.

Thorn checked himself, crying out in fury edged with distress. "Five gods, Alina, how could you do that? I made that bed for you -- for us -- those ships' sails --I held you there -- I've dreamed over and over again of making love with you again -- with all the pillows--"

Besoin charged through the door, gasping for breath, but fierce. "What? What?"

Alina put her hands on her hips. "I just told Thorn I'd moved our bed to the third floor."

Besoin jerked his head at her in confusion. "You couldn't do that; you'd have to chop that monster into pieces to move it anywhere."

Thorn stared.

Alina wrapped her arms around him, proudly and passionately. "Thorn kin Boarford, I know your heart. Don't you ever pretend you don't belong here and you don't belong with me."

"How do you know, when I've been struggling with this?"

"I don't know why the wisdom boar was forced on you, but you were always a boar by nature." She smiled warmly at her husband. "My boar -- renowned for fiercely defending his home and his own. You'd never be content anywhere else."

Besoin grunted, "The two of you go on -- I'll tend to the fire. Here's a taper to see you to your bed."


	2. Chapter 2

The Mother's Tale

Chapter Two -- Day 3

 

Thorn rubbed his face in Alina's curls, losing himself in the dark, springing question marks. She made little murmurs as she stretched and turns towards him, opening dark eyes wide. "Good morning, love."

He hitched himself up on an elbow, straightening a curl, then letting go. "Y'know," he murmured. "If I could make your curls in metal, I could --"

"-- invent wonderful things. I know," she gurgled. "You've said that before."

"Not for a long time." He sighed. "We need to meet this inquirer. And I'd like to see Besoin beforehand."

"To business, then. Love."

"Ummm."

 

##############################################################################

 

Besoin met them at breakfast, sipping ale while they ate bread and meat. "You need to be very careful about what you say to Reto Rugen, the Earl's inquirer."

Thorn nodded. "What do you know of him?"

Besoin ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth. "Hmmph. So much to cover in a few minutes. Let's look at Reto Rugen within the whole picture." Besoin grabbed the large saltcellar and place it between them with a flourish. "Here's Earl Velten kin Boarford, your overlord. You remember him," Besoin glanced up from under shaggy eyebrows.

"As conservative as my father, but far more politic in his speech." Thorn recalled the Earl's imposing height, piercing Boarford blue eyes and white-blonde hair, and thin, unforgiving lips.

"Sly as a fox. Your father tried to emulate Velten, but only managed to sound pompous."

"I remember."

"The Earl's wealth is primarily in shipping. He controls all trade from our branch of the Stork to the Lure. Every boat that brings a new bolt of brocade for Lady Rike earns its real profit in the haul it returns to Easthome. Timber for houses and furniture, trout for the market, iron ore to smelt for warcraft and machinery: stuff taken raw from Southfield and our neighbors, then sold to men who turn it into things."

"Now," Besoin placed his cup in front of the saltcellar. "Here is Earl kin Boarford's bravo, Gernot Blenko, the dockmaster here in Southfield." He glanced again at Thorn. "I'm certain that Blenko's thugs bruised you yesterday."

Thorn startled.

Besoin leaned close to Thorn. "You are in danger here, Thorn. It may lessen when you're recognized as castlemaster, but don't expect an easy time of it. Gernot Blenko's job is to keep Southfield operating as a port for whatever Earl Boarford wants to ship."

Besoin glanced at Alina, then placed a knife in front of the cup. "Here is our lad Kritsyn. Unlike his employers, basically honest. But unobservant, incurious, and apt to put the directions of his employer ahead of his better judgment."

"Finally, our cunning overlord has sent an inquirer -- Reto Rugen -- with an interesting past. No ties to the Temple nor any knowledge of law. No interest in the welfare of the castle or the town. No, Reto Rugen's background is in setting up networks of shippers and customers and their employees in the towns up and down the rivers. Velten must have ordered him to make Southfield completely compliant with trade."

Alina looked thoughtful. "Trade in and of itself isn't bad. It's how we survive here now."

Besoin nodded. "But any undertaking by a castlemaster and his overlord must be balanced with the needs of his followers, down to the humblest."

Besoin's bushy eyebrows shook. "In one town twenty miles downriver -- Rockall -- Earl Boarford put Rugen in charge of the dockyards. As at Southfield, he had added a garrison unaffiliated with the local government -- in that case, a civil administration of five elected burghers -- and he used the garrison to intimidate the town into submitting to control by the shipping company." Besoin lifted his hand as both Alina and Thorn began to speak. "One administrator's house burned in the night; the man and his family up in flames. A second burgher's son was found strangled. Citizens' cattle disappeared. You know about this, Alina."

Alina added hotly. "And no help from Easthome."

Besoin shrugged. "The Earl didn't request any; in fact, he said the shipping company would defend the townspeople better than the council had. No one in Rockall had friends in the capital so influential that they could demand an inquiry."

Thorn stood. "Well, it's time I met this man. Alina, are you ready?"

Besoin nodded them along. "Keep your wits about you and observe the expert on your side: you have an excellent ally in your step-mother, you know."

Thorn smiled.

 

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As Thorn and Alina approached the south castle gate, a small, wiry, bandy-legged, gray-haired man rushed forward in pleasure. "My Lord! My goodness!" Hoy, stablemaster for as long as anyone could remember, grasped Thorn's hands and kissed them. Thorn smiled, "Hoy, thank you for your welcome."

Hoy's head thumped up and down to emphasize his words. "We've missed you here, Lord Thorn. The horses, they will tell you. We need our master back."

Thorn had barely freed himself from Hoy's handshake when a tall, narrow-faced soldier in the castle tabard, boar and stork separated by a river, stepped forward. Thorn remembered that Rider Kai's long scar -- running from his forehead to his cheek, then down to his moustache -- had fascinated him as a child. Rider Kai's straight hair was still black, his nose still jutting, long, and thin. Rider Kai bowed, "My Lord." Then his wide smile stretched across that bony face. "It has been long, my lord."

"Too long," agreed Thorn.

"You'll find the castle troop in good form."

"I'm sure I will, Rider Kai. I trust that your pleasant wife still bakes mouth watering cinnamon buns?"

Rider Kai's smile broadened, if such were possible. "She does indeed, my lord." Acknowledging Thorn's gaunt appearance, he offered, "She'd be glad to make you some fresh, my lord."

Thorn laughed. "Please tell her I'm looking forward to her fragrant pastries. They will certainly fatten me up."

As he and Alina climbed the steps into the castle, Thorn murmured, "Everyone's come to welcome me today."

Alina grinned. "You're not only the prodigal son. Rike is making sure that you're recognized and accepted."

Before they met Rike in her solar, Thorn had reunited with Kolding, his father's ancient butler, and bubbly Lady Zary kin Otterway, his step-mother's lady-in-waiting. The retainers' affection was sincere, warming Thorn. Alina watched his soul respond with shimmers of soft light.

She had noted Rike's bright, sharp spirit the day before; today Alina could feel Rike's tension. "Now, listen to me first before we go talk with that rogue, Rugen." Rike pointed a slim finger at Thorn and raised her eyebrows. "Are you ready, today, to fight, young man?"

Thorn heard an order rather than a question, so answered, "Ready, step-mother."

"Good." She signaled Kolding, who led them in a small procession across the main hall to a small reception room.

The rectangular office comprised a heavy, dark wooden table with six chairs. In addition, the east end of the room was raised, with two tall-backed chairs and a third, slightly shorter chair to one side. Rike led Thorn up so that she and he sat, reminiscent of kings on thrones, with Alina in the third chair.

A middle-sized, slender man with dark face and small eyes stood by the table. He bowed as Rike marched past, and rearranged himself to face the dais. Lady Zary sat down at the far end of the table.

Rike introduced Lord Thorn kin Boarford and his wife Lady Alina in the grand manner, then gestured to Rugen to sit. "Inquirer," she declared. "I called you here today to witness the return of my son, who is prepared to take over the castlemastership held previously by his brother, father, and grandfathers." Before he could respond, she added, "Please take my messages to Earl kin Boarford immediately, so the formalities of investiture may proceed."

Rugen looked uncertain; he definitely hadn't anticipated an immediate and complete coup. He clearly wished to negotiate. "My Lady kin Boarford," he began, "before I, as Inquirer, can jump to any conclusions --"

Rike raised her eyebrows disdainfully. "Surely, Inquirer, I have stated facts. And while I see no reason for you to jump, I see every reason for you to return to the Earl, our overlord, immediately to apprise him of this very fortunate change in affairs."

"I believe . . .  I am not free at the moment to --"

"Inquirer!" Rugen straightened unhappily. "You seem to misunderstand the situation, although I cannot imagine why. It is essential that you personally contact the Earl. I wish to conclude the investiture on the Day of the Mother of Summer." Rike stared at Rugen in the least maternal attitude possible. "I speak as a mother who has suffered immeasurable sorrow in the long separation from my son, and who has lost every other child as well as her husband, Earl Velten kin Boarford's loyal castlemaster. The Earl will wish to be informed of the wondrous return of my son. He will support me in celebrating with the dearest devotion to the Goddess for the miracle of Thorn's return. Just seventeen days from now.

"So!" Rike rose, concluding the conference before her listeners had realized it had begun. "I trust you will have a safe journey to Easthome or wherever the Earl currently lies. I will prepare for the investiture on the Lady of Summer's Day."

Rugen stood and blinked. He opened his mouth, but Rike, followed closely by Thorn and Alina, sailed out of the room before he could make a noise. Lady Zary caught up with her lady as they crossed back to the solar; she closed the door behind them.

Thorn laughed. "Nice work, step-mother!"

Rike looked at him benignly. "Don't take anything for granted, Thorn. But," she smiled thinly, "I sincerely hope I just bought us two weeks to prepare for the Earl."

"The Earl?" Thorn frowned. "You're right. He won't take the chance of having Southfield slip from his grip easily."

Alina swallowed uneasily. Thorn looked concerned and was about to speak when she shook her head slightly.

"My Lady, may Thorn and I be excused?" Alina explained, "we haven't had enough time to consult with Besoin about all the issues we're facing."

Rike smiled and nodded. "You take care of yourself, my dear. Things will work out all right."

Alina nodded back and gripped Thorn's hand. But before Lady Zary could open the door, Alina stopped her. "Rike, would you please make sure to protect yourself and your servants, especially those who knew Thorn in the past?"

Rike's surprise was evident. "Do you think it necessary?"

"I'm sure it's absolutely necessary. Even Rider Kai and Hoy. I can't explain right now, but I'm sure that . . .  you need to be very watchful," she finished weakly.

"I will do as you suggest, child." She looked past Alina to Thorn. "Son, you be watchful too. I don't want to lose you again." Suddenly, Rike looked older than her forty years.

Thorn nodded. "I plan to stay healthy." He and Alina left, hand in hand.

Rike said to Lady Zary, "Please call Kolding and ask him to bring Rider Kai and Hoy here immediately. We have some planning to do."

Lady Zary hazarded a half-smile. "Do you think Lady Alina's fears have substance?"

Rike answered, "Lady Alina doesn't ask for much. I will not deny her when she does. Besides, I've spent twenty years watching the dangers grow in Southfield."

 

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"What did you see that scared you?" Thorn whispered as they quickly left the castle for home.

"Reto Rugen's soul," Alina answered hoarsely. "It's broken in pieces and there are veins pulsing through it."

"Is he possessed?" Thorn asked in alarm.

"I don't know," Alina shook her head. "I don't know what I'm looking at." She tried to explain. "When I look at you, I see your soul; since yesterday, it has lightened and brightened. There is also a dark denseness which must be your boar. Your step-mother's soul is clear and sharp; Lady Zary's is round and soft and pink. But Regen's is sick and agitated with veins tangling it. I'm afraid." She shivered.

They were nearing Besoin's house. Out front Marlis, the housekeeper, held Heike's tunic with one hand, as she spoke, while her other arm wrapped around a shaken Pila.

"What's wrong?" Alina asked.

Before Heike, Besoin's manservant, could answer, Marlis interposed, "Two men tried to grab Kirsa when she and Pila went to the shops. Pila screamed, and Kirsa kicked one of the men, and the girls ran away. Horrible!"

Besoin came out of the house, shooing everyone indoors. "Kirsa is within," he told Alina, "She's all right." He turned to Pila, "Now, child, how are you?" The maid's quivering became sobs as Marlis and Alina helped her inside. Besoin and Thorn caught each other's looks.

"By the five gods," Besoin swore, "From now on we will protect everyone. Thorn, please stay. Heike and I will be back shortly."

Besoin was true to his word. By the time Kirsa and Pila were calmer, he had returned with company. The Temple divine wore the gray robe and carmine braid of the Father of Winter. The other men wore the embroidered tunics popular among the merchant class. Both were evidently successful: the shorter, gray-haired man had elaborately designed silver buckles on his tunic and the taller, chipper-looking man sported buckles with enamel insets in gold. Both appeared grim.

While refreshments were speedily served, Besoin introduced Thorn to the Father-divine, Learned Tancred, whose insightful, bright green eyes contrasted with disordered shocks of salt and pepper hair. The shorter merchant was Tiela Furth, and the taller, sporting a moustache and goatee, Lutz Stargard. The men bowed to Thorn.

Tiela Furth tutted and shook his head in greeting, "My lord, sad times to meet you. Bad times."

Lutz Stargard assessed Thorn quickly, "There's no denying, my lord, that our previous castlemasters failed to protect us from the Earl's impredations. Not to dishonor the dead, my lord."

Thorn replied, "From what I've learned in the past day, I have begun to wonder how my father and brother allowed the problems to mount, Merchant. However, I do not intend to discuss past wrongs at this time." Stargard nodded. "Merchant Stargard and Merchant Furth," Thorn caught each man's eye, then turned to the divine, "and Learned Tancred, we must address the current situation and decide on a plan. Are you with me?"

Stargard dipped his chin, and Learned Tancred gave a slight, accepting bow.

Furth squinted, pinched his nose, and pointed his finger at Thorn. "I'm with you -- yes, I know you from your looks and I remember you as a boy -- and that your father exiled you. Think, my lord. The true reason I'm for you right now is my fear that Southfield will become a second Rockall." The other men grunted, shifting their weight.

Besoin asked, "What was the result of your meeting with Reto Rugen?"

"My haughty step-mother sent Rugen running to the Earl with news of my investiture on the Mother of Summer's Day." Even Tiela Furth smiled sardonically at that.

Thorn, frowning, continued, "Gentlemen, another point is whether my return is precipitating a takeover of local authority."

"Well asked," murmured Furth.

"No, my lord," Luz Stargard responded. "Lord Dun's death gave the Earl opportunity. In fact, I'm sure he'd act faster if he knew you'd returned."

Besoin mused, "It takes seven days to sail from here to Easthome."

Furth added, "The courier's ride is nine days."

Thorn stared out the window. "So the Earl won't hear news for a week."

Furth interposed, "I'm sure a report was sent as soon as you were identified, my lord. Which, according to rumors of a mugging, was your first night here."

Thorn nodded. "You're right. The Earl will hear in five days. He'll see Rugen in seven. We can't contact anyone in Easthome in fewer than nine days.

"Well, first, we make sure a courier leaves with messages to Easthome within the hour."

Besoin grunted, "And we'll send armed guards with the courier. And leave messages with our brethren in towns along the way." Nods in agreement.

Thorn continued. "Unfortunately, shipping must be halted temporarily if we wish to stop the dockmaster and the Earl's troops. We have to know their movements; they've already started to terrorize Southfield as they did Rockall."

"What can we prove against them?" Learned Tancred asked quietly. Alina realized this sticking point had led to Rockall's ruin.

Thorn stood up. "My step-mother and I will command Gernot Blenko and Captain kin Foxrun to meet us at the castle. I invite you, gentlemen, to attend the meeting.

"In the meantime, I ask you to make all necessary arrangements to protect your families and the people of Southfield. I urge you -- prepare without instilling fear."

Furth nodded, "I'll advise folks to travel in groups and keep alert. Everyone knows about Rockall. They'd feel better if they were doing something."

"Then we'd better get started," Stargard noted, and the merchants left.

 

#############################################################################

 

"Learned Tancred," Alina said nervously. "There is more about Reto Rugen that you need to know." To his raised eyebrows, she stated, "His spirit contains a geas." She sensed, rather than saw, Thorn quietly lean against the wall, watching.

The divine startled. "What?"

Besoin also showed his surprise. "How do you know?"

Here goes, Alina thought. "This morning at the meeting with Rike, Lady kin Boarford, I saw a swirling black knot of veins twisting around Reto Rugen's soul."

Silence. Waiting.

"I . . .  the Mother of Summer appeared to me yesterday morning. In the deep woods." Alina stammered. "She kissed my forehead. I . . .  see differently now."

Learned Tancred's jaw dropped in wonder. "You are god-touched."

"Well," Alina frowned, "the Goddess really didn't help me much." Thorn gave a shout of laughter, so Alina turned on him. "I mean, she didn't tell me how to use her gift. I'm not sure what I should be doing."

The divine looked at her seriously. "No saint or petty saint or even former saint has been in Southfield for thirty years, as far as I know." He frowned, "But I wouldn't know." His eyes narrowed. "What do you see?"

Alina concentrated. "I see more of people than I used to. And all my senses respond. You, Learned, have a smooth, solid soul. Besoin has a soul full of reflecting chinks as of mirrored glass." She decided not to mention Thorn and his boar. "Reto Rugen's spirit frightened me."

Learned Tancred smiled. "I thought I'd never meet someone touched by a god."

Besoin asked, "Could Rugen tell that you saw his soul?"

"I don't know. He didn't seem to."

"Learned," Alina asked, "What does it mean to be god-touched?"

The divine grinned. "You will have to tell me all about it."

 

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Gernot Blenko looked as if he had become meaner with every knock he'd every taken, and he'd taken a lot. Half of one ear was missing; skin under his left eye sagged and the eyeball wandered in its socket; his face and hands were riddled with wrinkles and scars. Of middling height and with greasy hair, the dockmaster could easily be overlooked as having lost any intelligence, but his right beady eye belied that. This man would use anything to achieve his ends. Or his master's ends: a geas convulsed in his spirit, Alina saw.

Kritsyn accompanied the dockmaster. He appeared slightly suspicious of the assembled group, but not worried. Alina suspected that Blenko did not entrust his troop captain with much information.

This time, as Thorn moved to the dais with Rike, Alina sat in the back of the room. After formal bows, the others sat around the table with their chairs turned towards the thrones.

"Captain kin Foxrun and dockmaster Blenko, thank you for coming. Do you know Merchant Furth? Merchant Stargard? Of course you know my wife's cousin Lord Besoin kin Falconcrest and Learned Tancred, our senior divine and an expert law in under the Father of Winter." Cursory bows were exchanged at Thorn's introductions.

"I called this meeting because two incidents have occurred which require responses. As Earl Boarford left the castle in my step-mother's charge during the hiatus between castlemasters, she, Lady Rike kin Boarford is the proper authority for all civil incidents."

Blenko frowned. "Hmph. I'm not aware that a woman is in charge here. She has no authority over the dockyards." Blenko's tone was distinctly insolent.

Rike raised her eyebrows disdainfully. "My authority has not been questioned prior to your remark, dockmaster. Townspeople bring their concerns to me, and I act accordingly. Learned Tancred has sat with me monthly to review cases since the last castlemaster, my son Dun, became too infirm to complete his duties."

Blenko narrowed his dark eye. "You've never had authority over the dockyards, my lady."

Rike looked at him squarely. "Perhaps I had no need in the past."

Kritsyn looked perplexeded. "Pardon me, my lady, what has changed?"

Rike smiled at the young captain. "Captain kin Foxrun, two probably completely unrelated incidents have occurred. I think you know about the first -- when my son Thorn was attacked in full daylight in the street outside your barracks."

Kritsyn nodded, unaware that Blenko fumed beside him. "Oh, yes, my lady. The attack was an affront to my troop and my honor because I had brought Troynt -- Lord Thorn kin Boarford -- to the town."

Rike smiled again. "Exactly. But you did not report the attack to me, correct?"

Kritsyn looked more confused. "No, my lady. It didn't occur to me; I felt the incident was my own responsibility."

Blenko interrupted, "It was a one-in-a-kind event that had only to do with a suspicious stranger -- pardon, my lord -- and attackers that came from outside somewhere."

Everyone looked surprised. Southfield was too isolated for unknown assailants; every stranger was noted.

Blenko recovered himself quickly, "Probably some drunk farmers who wanted to beat up the wanderer."

This time everyone looked affronted. Before the merchants could defend these supposed members of the community, Learned Tancred interjected, "This confusion clarifies the necessity for all incidents to be reported to the local gentry or the Temple," he touched his robe.

Rike grabbed the divine's offer. "Learned Tancred, the ties between the people and the Temple are sacred as are our ties to the gods themselves. When incidents occur in any part of Southfield, may we require that they be reported to you immediately, and that you are given, with my advice, the authority to resolve them?"

Before Blenko could object, the divine acquiesced. "Yes, my lady, if we share the understanding that any civic matters revert to your jurisdiction either when you and I so agree, or when Lord Thorn kin Boarford is invested as castlemaster."

That such an arrangement made sense to Kritsyn as well as the others present, clearly left Gernot Blenko angry. "Was all this malarky necessary, my lady, because one man couldn't defend himself?"

Rike answered sternly. "No, dockmaster. Several hours ago, men attempted to kidnap two young women."

Kritsyn was clearly surprised. "Here in town?"

Rike nodded. "At the shops. Again in bright daylight." She studied Blenko. "Southfield is not going to allow such crimes. I will not allow them. Lord Thorn kin Boarford will not allow them. The Temple will not allow them." She sat straight. "Captain kin Foxrun, if necessary, I will require information on the whereabouts of riders in your troop. Of course, I would hate to be moved to such a step, but, as you and the rest of us have just agreed, Learned Tancred will be given resources to resolve any threats to my people."

By now Kritsyn was aware that Gernot Blenko was angry, but he couldn't fathom the cause. Kritsyn disliked the thought of reporting to anyone other than his Earl, but he believed that soldiers were supposed to defend the weak, especially women and children. Of course, he wouldn't be called for a report because none of his riders would act in a dastardly manner. So, he assured himself blandly, everything was all right.

 

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"Besoin," Alina asked when the three had returned home, "tell us about Thorn's wisdom boar." Thorn nodded.

"In the ancient days," Besoin began, "Old Weald shamans created wisdom animals: deer, wolves, bears, and so on. For example, a shaman raised a boar, then sacrificed it into another boar. Then again in the next generation, and again in the next. The accumulation of boar spirits-"

"Created a great boar? A perfect boar?" Alina wrinkled her nose.

"No. Not at all. Rather, the accumulation of spirits were said to go deeper. Perhaps converging on a common center; perhaps opening a connection to the gods. Certainly, in order to become a shaman, a man or woman had to receive the spirit of a wisdom animal -- as you did, Thorn."

"Hmmm." Thorn didn't enjoy thinking back to being captured and beaten. His exhaustion, hunger. The pain in his head and back intensifying while he was strapped to the plodding mule. Then the remote site, littered with the bodies of the sea raiders. The licks of fire in the air. Wondering, when are they going to kill me? The wildly dressed man intoning words from a rough hewn form of language.

"My boar was young." Thorn thought he held a toddler, a completely trusting child. That funny solid pig body, not even wriggling much. "The -- shaman -- gave me knife. After he had recited something, he grabbed my hand as if he was going to guide it to cut the boar's throat. I didn't want that bastard to have anything to do with my job. I cut the throat fast and clean; the little thing never knew."

Alina and Besoin waited. Thorn stared at nothing for a minute, then groaned.

"I don't know what happened next. I felt boar bodies and boar memories pouring into me. More and more. And screaming -- that was probably me." He focused on Alina. "When I awoke, everyone was gone. I was alone in the mountains -- lost -- and had something in me -- wild and old and gigantic and multitudinous. I know I screamed then."

"How did you survive with it?" Besoin asked softly.

Thorn shrugged. "I don't not survive." Alina smiled.

"No. Oh, I see what you mean. I had too much on my mind to consider purposely killing myself. And the boar was overwhelming, but not . . .  well, I wanted to control it. And it doesn't want to die. And I guess it is really a part of me. But you are right," he smiled at Alina. "I am not the sort of person who considers death an option."

Alina was curious. "I've heard that when a demon that has been in animal enters a person, the person carries all the demon's knowledge of the animal with it."

Thorn shook his head. "My boar is a boar, and I can remember flashes of its different lives. But I'm not becoming a boar. A long time after the wisdom boar entered my soul, I tried exploring, tried to feel its essence." He contemplated a bit. "I almost think if I explored long and hard enough, I'd almost come to the gods." He shook himself and twisted one end of his mouth apologetically. "The boar has its uses. Especially when fighting, which helped me get bits of work here and there as I came my way south. I hired on as a private guard for merchants and travelers. An addition to the Daughter's men." Soldier-dedicats to the Lady of Spring protected pilgrims and other travelers. Alina wondered about everything unsaid from Thorn's past two years. "I wish I knew more shaman lore. I sense so much, I think there is incredible capacity for good."

Alina slid her eyes to Besoin's, but he refused to look her way. "Thorn, we've all heard of the human sacrifices the Old Weald conducted as they fell to the Darthacans. The shamans performed those rites."

Thorn held up both hands. "Oh, that is not at all what I'm talking about."

Besoin played with a piece of string, twisting it back and forth between his fingers. "Thorn and Alina. I do not believe coincidences. Here you sit, one a shaman possessed of a wisdom boar's spirit and the other touched by the Mother of Summer. You have received gifts for a reason."

Thorn interjected, "I think those jackals performed the rite to make me suffer horribly. And to destroy a wisdom animal."

"Yes," agreed Besoin. "But the gods use us as They wish to the extent that we will allow Them. Those jackals as you call them might have unknowingly fulfilled the gods' aims. Alina, do you know why the Mother of Summer so blessed you?"

The Mother's image rose in Alina's mind and she smiled. "She said that the fracture between the Old Weald's wisdom ways and the ways of the gods needs to be healed. She wants me to go to the Old Weald somehow -- find out the wisdom ways, I suppose -- and bring them into the modern world. I guess. She spoke of harmony." Alina frowned. _And the Goddess said that my strengths were my anger and my willingness to work._

"Ah," Besoin remarked, "then there is no coincidence."

Thorn shook his head, "And no answers, either. We know we're here for a reason, but don't have a clue as to the reason."

A sudden pounding on the door. Besoin and Thorn rose as they heard Heike answer it. Lutz Stargard strode in, "Physician," he urged Alina. "Come immediately. Captain kin Foxrun is badly injured -- he might be dead already."

 

#############################################################################

 

Kritsyn's face was gray and his body immobile, placed on a table in the Mother's infirmary. Learned Kilda had cleaned the bludgeon wound and bandaged it, but Kritsyn had lost much blood. That the wound was along his left shoulder at the base of his neck made Thorn wonder whether Kritsyn had dodged a more quickly fatal blow to the skull.

Learned Kilda spoke quietly but urgently to Alina, "I did what I could, but I want your opinion. You have a special touch." Alina was surprised at Kilda's praise. What more could she do?

Alina leaned over Kritsyn, gently removing the dressing and touching the wound. There was something wrong there. She concentrated and found she could see below Kritsyn's skin to muscles that had been ripped, then to bone that looked unbroken. A cut in a muscle was tinged with a violet dye that appeared to burn. Alina pointed her finger at the violet smudge and it stopped burning and slowly faded into the color of the other muscles. Alina willed the muscles to reunite. Then she closed her eyes and prayed silently for Kritsyn's recovery.

"I hope," she cleared her throat. "The Mother of Summer will look favorably on the captain." She looked at Learned Kilda. "That's the best I can do."

Learned Kilda gave her a nod of thanks. "I'll replace the dressing."

Alina gazed at the young man. "He has lost an awful lot of blood. Let me know how he progresses. I'll be back in the morning."

 

##############################################################################

 

Thorn held her arm as they walked out of the infirmary grounds and into the Temple Square. Instead of taking the back street to Besoin's house, they walked down the wide, old road, lined with merchants' houses whose shops were on the first floor facing the street. "You've been made a saint," he remarked.

"No," she answered. "Well, yes. I guess so."

"You just healed Kritsyn," he held up his hand when she sought to remonstrate. "All right, you just did something that looked as if it will save Kritsyn's life."

"It might," she conceded.

There were fewer people out this evening than usual because of the warnings distributed by Stargard and Furth. Daylight still shone with the longest day of the year nearing. Thorn dropped his arm to Alina's waist as they strolled along.

Suddenly, one hooded man dashed from their left while two more attacked from their right. Thorn's right hand dropped to his sword as his left pushed Alina behind him to the left. Seeming to expand in height and girth, Thorn lunged at the first man, swiping his sword up and eviscerating the bravo from navel to chops. Swiftly, Thorn faced the other two attackers, swinging his sword from right to left, neatly slicing off the head of the man to his right, then impaling the other. Alina was shocked to see spirits rising from the dead men.

Thorn pulled his sword from the third man, not seeing the spirit close by. Several citizens stepped out on the street, albeit cautiously. One old, gristled dockworker gingerly removed the hood from the eviscerated body. "'Tis one of the dockmaster's men," he called out.

Lutz Stargard came running from a house further up the street. He stopped and stared at the bodies and at Thorn. The old dockworker announced, "They're all good and dead. The lord carved 'em like a roast at the feast." He hobbled over to Thorn, "Good work, m' lord."

Stargard stared at Thorn. "Old Balder's right."

"Stargard," Thorn answered. "We need to stop these attacks." The sound of horses made him look up. "Good." Rider Kai rode up with four of his men, armed and with crossbows strapped to their horses' sides. "Kai, we need to find Gernot Blenko now. I need a mount," Rider Kai signaled a man who jumped from his horse and led it to Thorn.

"Alina, this soldier will take you home."

"No," Alina responded, "I'm coming with you." _Oh, Thorn, you can't see Blenko's geas._

Thorn frowned, but nodded to the dismounted rider to help Alina swing up behind him. They cantered east towards the dockmaster's building and barracks. The soldier, Stargard, and other men followed on foot.

The river bordered the west side of the town. Docks, warehouses, chandlers' and wheelwrights' shops, ropewalks, and suppliers of all the accoutrements for ships ran for a series of blocks. The office for the dockmaster and the Earl's shipping business was in a small building at the far southwest end; the barracks for the dockmaster's troop were beyond.

This evening an eerie silence held as they neared the end of the dockyard. No one was on the street. All the shops were closed.

Rider Kai dismounted at the dockmaster's office, pounding on the door for Blenko. When there was no response, he and one of his men broke the door in. The office was empty, as was the building.

They rode on to the barracks, stopping some yards away.

Thorn sniffed the air. "This isn't good."

Alina looked around her. "There is a man in that willow, beyond the barracks, and two in the bracken in this field," she nodded to her left. Thorn responded, "I know."

Kai and his men, surprised, looked, "I don't see --" The whoosh of an arrow shot from the willow caught one of Kai's men in the shoulder. The man fell as his horse startled and ran.

Kai and one man rode into the bracken, cutting down the men there. Two more ghosts.

"The barracks are empty; five men are on the wharf behind it, ready to ambush you," Alina whispered to Thorn. Alina then slid off the horse, running to the wounded man.

Thorn pulled a crossbow from the rider's gear. Aiming carefully, he shot where the sniper was probably positioned  in the tree. A yell, and then a man fell.

Rider Kai and his soldier returned from the bracken, joining Thorn and the other three. They dismounted and spread out to circle around the back of the barracks. One trooper moved over towards the tree to dispatch the fallen sniper.

The arrow had not driven far into the wounded rider's upper arm, Alina was relieved to discover. Then, as Thorn and the others moved out of Alina's range of vision, she heard yells both from behind the barracks and from the street. Stargard, Rider Kai's other soldier, and a collection of merchants, sailors, and servants came running. Alina waved them over. By the time she had told Stargard about the ambush, the yelling behind the barracks had stopped. Stargard directed several men to convey the wounded rider to the infirmary. He then started towards the barracks as men appeared from behind it.

Thorn and Rider Kai walked tiredly in front. Two troopers guarded a prisoner, and the other two were helping a wounded attacker.

They came up to Stargard and Alina. The prisoner was Gernot Blenko. Alina already knew that three souls had risen from bodies left behind on the wharf.

Alina saw writhing veins encircling Gernot's soul. What could she do? "Keep him held," she directed his guards. She concentrated on the veins, trying to weaken them, but they convulsed more. Blenko stared at her in undisguised hatred. Alina shook her shoulders, giving up. "I can't remove the geas," she said quietly to Thorn. Thorn's eyebrow flicked. "Doesn't matter. He'd be just as mean without it."

 

############################################################################

 

Blenko was removed to the castle dungeon on Learned Tancred's orders. Old Balder, the dockmaster from many years past, was temporarily reinstated without any troops. Blenko's wounded follower was remanded to the infirmary under guard, while Rider Kai's wounded rider was also there, surrounded by well wishers.

Alina and Thorn returned home to a late dinner with Besoin. Alina ached physically, and she was horror struck by her ability to see ghosts. Besoin, on the other hand, was fascinated by her description of them. He also encouraged her to watch the gods receive the souls. Alina accused him of seeing her new gifts has toys rather than frightening connections to the Goddess.

Besoin was equally, if not more, intrigued by Thorn's incredible boar strength when fighting. He was equally impressed by Thorn's archery prowess. "That has nothing to do with my boar," Thorn grunted.

Both Alina and Thorn were relieved to escape to their carved bed as well as each other's caresses. "How can we make up for ten years?" Alina moaned as Thorn kissed her breasts. "I plan to show you how again and again and again," he whispered.

 

##############################################################################

Day 4

 

Warmth with a sweet breeze. Acrid scents of earth, mold, pine needles, summer truffles, and crow garlic mixing with the delicate fragrances of rosemary, bluebells, lily of the valley, and poppies. A sense of luxurious greens and darks, speckled with white, yellow, reds, lavender, deep blue, frosty pink. A _Presence_. Definitely. Alina inhaled the beauty. Then the woman's voice, singing heard in other dreams, bringing the large boar into view. The boar raised his head as if to catch the melody.

The vision spun away and Alina and Thorn awoke simultaneously, clutching each other. "Did you --" "The Goddess" "The singing woman --"

 

###########################################################################

 

A wondrous dream. But Thorn shook his head. "What does the voice want? I can't leave Southfield -- I just returned. I can't begin to atone for my father's and brother's failings. I can't wander off into the woods when we're facing a direct assault." He dropped his head in his hands.

Alina's sense of rapture -- her urge to rush off into the deep forest to follow the voice -- abruptly cut off by the real needs in town -- stopped her breath. Losing the vision left her angry and frustrated. Frowning, she lay back on the pillows. Then heard something Thorn had said. "Why do you so easily accept that your father and Dun were both failures as castlemasters?" She then thought about how little either had accomplished, and added, "You're right, though."

Thorn sighed. "Alina, my father resented my suggestions as fiercely as he did because he was on a leash. Something or someone kept him from taking care of Southfield."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I just know. We didn't fight only because we had different ideas and personalities. Or because fathers and sons argue. There was something else that he wouldn't admit. And I suspect that Dun's illness. . . . "

Alina sat up. "Dun wasn't poisoned. He was already sick when he returned to your father's death bed."

"I just know. Not that it matters. I can't change the past."

Alina looked at her husband. "If you really think someone was controlling your father and brother, we need to find out before it tries to control you." She paused, "Do you think Rike knows?"

"Yes. Perhaps. She's too smart not to have suspected something." Thorn shook himself out of his worry and smiled at Alina, winding his arms around her. "So we will figure things out. Okay? My healing lady?"

"My boar lord." Alina hugged him back.

"Too bad I need to check on the town's defenses." He kissed her hair. Then suddenly sat up, "I remember. The river was almost over the wharf at the barracks last night."

"It's at its fullest now. The farmers have been complaining that they have seeds but the fields are dry." Alina cocked her head at him. "I thought you were going to say something more romantic."

Thorn smiled, "Yes, I was thinking about defenses. But I'll have to wait and storm them later." A last kiss, then he swung out of bed.

 

#############################################################################

 

Thorn met with Lutz Stargard and Tiela Furth at the castle in the same chamber with the dais, but using the table instead. He asked if they preferred the convenience of Besoin's house. "Not at all, my lord," stated Tiela Furth flatly. "Few merchants have been in the castle on real business."

"You will be here often, now." Thorn turned to Lutz Stargard, "Any word about the courier?"

Stargard nodded. "Yes, she passed Rockall safely. That's the most vulnerable section of the road."

Thorn tightened his lips. "We have to send out a report on yesterday's attacks and repercussions immediately. Do you have enough riders to guard another courier?"

"Yes," Stargard gazed at Thorn. "To whom will you send the report?"

"The hallow king himself is the only person I know who holds higher rank than Earl kin Boarford. It probably won't be politic, but I will direct the report to him. Besides," Thorn frowned, "I have a lot of bodies to explain."

Furth tapped his finger on the table, "People are relieved that the dockmaster has been put out of commission. Blenko is despised around here."

Stargard added, "But folks are losing work while shipping is stopped. Luckily, the dockworkers supported your clean up project last night; soon they'll be worrying about how to pay for food."

Thorn nodded. "We need to keep them employed." He looked at the merchants. "I want to check along the banks of the river. The river level is high."

Both merchants startled at the new topic. "That's a fact," Furth agreed, "People are also worried that the river will flood soon."

Stargard explained, "We've had damage every spring in recent years, my lord. If the river has crested before the Mother of Summer's Day, we're fortunate."

Thorn said, "Let's go see." He stood so swiftly the merchants hurried to follow suit. "Who is a farmer who knows the land well?"

Stargard raised his eyebrows, but Furth spoke first: "Kuno Koloman." Stargard nodded.

Thorn was already heading for the door. "We'll bring him along."

Behind Thorn, Furth looked at Stargard. They both shrugged.

 

#############################################################################

 

Alina sought out Rona first to chat about yesterday's visitors to the infirmary. Gentle Rona's eyes widened as she congratulated Alina on Thorn's romantic return and the miracle of saving Kritsyn's life. "Give Learned Kilda credit for that!" Alina laughed. "And thanks to the Goddess."

They walked together through the infirmary where Alina parted to check on Kritsyn. The captain had regained consciousness, a little color, and, most definitely, his voice. Two friends from the docks stood abruptly when Alina arrived; they knew Kritsyn was expending too much energy.

Alina smiled and shook her head at Kritsyn, "Don't wear yourself out, Captain!"

Kritsyn smiled at her, then a shadow passed over his face. "I had no idea my men were privately dealing with Blenko. I'm sorry, Al --  Dedicat -- um, Lady Boarford."

Alina, not sure what to say, glanced at Kritsyn's friends; one of them remarked, "Blenko's plans were in place before you ever arrived, Captain. You were the guy who got shaken up when those things got shaken out," he added wryly, pleased with his wit.

Alina nodded. Kritsyn's other friend added, "Word is that the new lord and Merchant Stargard are meeting up at the castle. Gonna be interesting times ahead," he prophesized.

Alina quit the room before Kritsyn could speak with her alone. She checked on the two wounded men from the fight. Rider Kai's man was healing nicely from the arrow wound. The soldier from the dockmaster's troop looked healthy and happy; he clearly wished to switch his allegiance to the side populated with pretty acolytes.

After meeting with Learned Kilda and expanding the list of wild herbs she needed to replenish, Alina returned to Besoin's. She found him in his study, hunched over two open books. Alina sat and looked at him.

Besoin raised his head and and wiggled his bushy eyebrows.

"Besoin, who is the singer I dream about? The lady in the forest?"

Besoin leaned back, tapping his lip with his forefinger. "A shaman? Or a phantom?"

Alina's mouth twisted. "So you think I can't find her?"

"I don't know."

"Besoin," Alina leaned forward. "I know that shamans can make spirit animals, and that shamans can make spirit warriors as well as other shamans. I know that shamans are adept healers."

Besoin fiddled with his penknife. "Wait a minute. You're confused. The spirit animals are key, not the shaman."

"What do you mean?"

"As I understand it," Besoin explained, "the spirit animal is the sacred part of the ritual. The greatness of the spirit warrior, for instance, was not his prowess or even that of the animal sacrificed: specifically, it was the number of lives that existed in that spirit animal. With me so far?"

Alina nodded.

"I've heard of a sorcerer reading words off a piece of paper in order to complete the rite for a boy to be possessed of a spirit animal. Not a shaman at all. Just demon-possessed." He glanced at her. "I've heard of a god speaking to a spirit animal who was within a woman. She knew it through a dream."

"So the key is a hoard of animal spirits which is empowered when cast into a human vessel?"

"Close enough." Besoin pushed his thick hair back. "If that vessel is a warrior, he gains exponentially increased strength and prowess. If it is a shaman, he or she gains increased powers in, for example, healing. Almost everything depends on whether the animal was a wisdom animal at all, and whether that wisdom animal had accumulated many lives." He continued, "Then there's the weirding voice."

"What's that?"

"I've only read about it. Apparently, some shamans can make absolute commands."

"Like 'Stop'?"

"Yes. And everyone -- people and animals -- obeys." Besoin nodded. "Alina, do you understand what risk every shaman suffers?"

Alina was silent. She knew.

"Only shamans can release spirit animals from someone's soul. And they can only do so at death. If Thorn dies without a shaman to release his boar, his soul will not be released to go to his god. It will remain in the world of matter, sundered, until it eventually deteriorates."

"Why can a sorcerer perform a possession but not a release? What about the rite?"

Besoin pondered. "That's worth looking into. I've heard about the words that were recited when Thorn received his boar. As for release . . . .  When spirit warriors died in battle, any survivor who held a wisdom animal -- could be another warrior or a shaman -- was duty bound to release the animal so the dead man's soul was free for the gods. Imagine the bodies laid out -- the survivors holding hands and singing the animals away." He focused on Alina again. "Releasing others' animals, knowing that someone would release one's own at the proper time -- it was more than a duty. It acknowledged the continuity of time. Past, present, future."

Alina whispered. "I must find a shaman."

Besoin grunted. "Then you must find more wisdom animals. And shamans who know what they're doing."

 

##############################################################################

 

Thorn worked his way along the northern side of the river. Two competent girls in a flat bottom river boat had poled him, the merchants, and the farmer to the southeast river bank. "Why was a berm built here?" He asked Kuno Koloman, a collection of more muscle than Thorn thought possible in a single man. Koloman wasn't tall; he was shaped like a stone wall. His knees and elbows stayed bent as if prepared to stop a mad ram or an avalanche. Thorn tried to avoid staring at the wart on Koloman's nose; it was big and red with a curly black hair sticking out the top. 

"Ah," the big man exclaimed, "Five gods! Those damned fools who're so worried about keeping the river cleared for the boats. The cheating bastards would sell their grannies' souls," he declaimed heartily. "The river brings down branches and garbage and silt, and the lazy good-for-nothings just dump them on this side." He pointed to the dry fields beyond the berm. "That land alone used to provide enough vegetables for all the families in town. With the berm in place, the water is kept out. Now it's dryer than a witch's tit." He spat. "Bastard help us." Reflexively, he signed the five gods.

Thorn stared up and down the river. Partly a dump for refuse, partly a deliberate construction to keep the river from changing its channel, the berms were forcing the water to flow faster and higher.

Stargard caught up with them, clearly regretting the effect of the hike on his boots. "Maybe over this year and next we could plan how to lower the water level."

"You got your head up your ass, man? Or, maybe up some gal's nice warm parts?" Kuno bellowed. "You need to do something now!"

Stargard's angry flush made Thorn intervene quickly. "Farmer Koloman, how many men would you need," he pointed, "to rip out ten feet of berms at the east and west ends of those fields, set up simple weirs, and dig channels around the perimeter of the arable land?"

When Koloman squinted, Thorn pictured very big numerals going around very slowly in the massive man's head. But he delivered an assured answer. "Give me ten men -- real men, none of these dainty pussies -- and I'll get it done in three weeks."

"If I gave you thirty men, could you get it done in five days?" Both Koloman and Stargard started in surprise, but Koloman quickly answered "Yep, my lord."

"Stargard, how many able-bodied men can you organize quickly?"

"Counting the men who are guarding the town, my lord?"

"Well, leaving guards on the river and road. We no longer need to worry about attacks in the streets."

"With the shipping closed, sixty workers are out of jobs." Before Koloman could interrupt with a ripe insult, Stargard continued, "Forty-five of them are strong and hard-working."

"Good," Thorn turned back to Koloman, "Later, I also want the fields on the south side of the river opened up with weirs and ditches. The fields beyond the barracks that are getting filled in by brush."

"Look at the speed of the water," Stargard pointed. "Open a berm and your workers will be washed away."

Thorn and Koloman followed Stargard's direction. "Right," Thorn responded thoughtfully. "Build strong weirs at the upriver positions. Besides the perimeter channels, dig shallower channels across the fields. Waterwheels -- put them in at the downriver outlets. The water flow can be controlled."

Stargard's lips twitched, "You will keep our wheelwrights and smiths busy."

Koloman gave Thorn an appraising glance. "And, my lord, after those channels are dug, men like me and you and Merchant Stargard here are gonna be calling them irrigation ditches."

"And?" Thorn raised his eyebrows.

"Well, my lord, it seems to me that we have a lot of seed that's gone unplanted this year," Koloman remarked. "Might be a good time to plant it -- if we have all these able-bodied men, as you call 'em."

"Right," Thorn agreed. "Plant all the seed that you can."

Koloman nodded with a smile stretching all across his face, which only exaggerated the wart.

 

##############################################################################

 

 

Thorn stopped by the Temple to catch up with the divine. Learned Tancred was planning funeral rites for the dockmaster's soldiers who died the day before. None of the deceased was local, so it would take awhile to contact relatives.

Thorn explained the plans for employing dockworkers to build weirs and ditches to channel river water through the fields. Learned Tancred agreed on all counts; he was deeply worried about flooding. While Kuno Koloman the right man for the job, Tancred suspected that land would also be allocated for growing hops and grapevines with some extra grains and potatoes. Given a chance, Koloman was a brewer, vintner, and a perfectly wicked distiller. 

Learned Tancred accompanied Thorn to Kritsyn's chamber in the infirmary. Kritsyn looked tired though on the mend. He tried to raise himself when Thorn and the divine entered.

"No, just lie there," Thorn directed, while Learned Tancred slid an extra pillow under Kritsyn's head. "How are you feeling?"

"A bloody fool, my lord," Kritsyn answered bitterly. "Any officer should know what his men are up to." He looked Thorn in the eye, "I didn't have a clue what game that rat Blenko was playing. I didn't know my men took me for an idiot."

Thorn raised his eyebrows. "I wouldn't assess your entire career on this experience, Captain."

"Why not?" Kritsyn asked sarcastically. "I've been here a full year. As their dupe, it turns out."

"So are you ready to join my guard?"

Kritsyn blinked. "After serving for Blenko?"

"Yes," Thorn answered seriously. "Gernot Blenko clearly recognized your integrity. Otherwise, he would have tried to convert you to his ways. Now, what I have is an excellent castlemaster's troop under Rider Kai." He gave Kritsyn an evaluating look. "What I need is a second, more flexible troop of soldiers which is capable of defending the entire area of Southfield."

"Yes, my lord?"

"Captain kin Foxrun, would you serve as the head of my military troop?"

"Yes, my lord!"

"It may mean that you will be required to resist Earl Boarford."

"I swore no allegiance to the Earl, my lord."

"Interesting," Thorn mused. "Well, I require my followers to do so."

"Happily, my lord."

"I'm pleased," Thorn smiled. Learned Tancred nodded with a quiet smile as well.

"Your first order is to recover as quickly as possible."

Kritsyn smiled. "As you wish, my lord."

 

##############################################################################

 

Thorn explored the taverns along the docks until he found Kuno Koloman at the Boar & Stork; the lord and the farmer sat together with beers and made plans for the work to be done. Koloman proved extremely clever; he was eager to involve locals in the areas that didn't match his skills. In other words, anything to do with geometry, measurements, or construction; his forte was rallying the manpower and focusing it on the job.

Thorn met Gisil, a slender, pale, blonde, pockmarked, gangly boy who was an acolyte for the Father of Winter. Shyly offering his help, and blushing at Koloman's extravagant praise, Gisil surprised Thorn with his mastery of mechanical designs. Diffidently suggesting that existing harbor cranes be used as floating cranes for positioning the weir mechanics and the waterwheels, Gisil convinced Thorn that he had both mathematical aptitude and the ability to visualize the steps of the engineering project.

Koloman also called in several men he'd met when Gernot Blenko set up extensive boat repair facilities along the main docks. Although newcomers, the men were eager to improve the infrastructure along the river. They convinced Thorn they sought opportunities to advance locally rather than end up with another employer like Blenko.

Stargard arrived late in the day with news that rounding up workers to start immediately meant more effort in saying no than in hiring. Koloman insisted that using the local tavern keepers to supply meals would keep the job on target, and Thorn agreed. Anyone not hired directly would find plenty of related jobs.

Thorn rose, tired, and Stargard smiled at him. "Have you noticed that everyone in town has dropped by for a brew this afternoon?" When Thorn shook his head, Stargard walked him out the door and added, "they all want to see 'my lord.' You've impressed them."

They headed towards Besoin's house. "I hadn't realized that would happen," Thorn admitted.

"When will you and my lady move to the castle?" Stargard asked.

Thorn, surprised, looked at the merchant, who grinned at him. "I hadn't thought of moving before the investiture."

"There's no one who's going to run you out of town this time, my lord," Stargard remarked softly. 

After a pause, Stargard continued, "Your lovely lady is well-liked, and every man and woman in this town knows someone she's healed. Of course, Lady Rike kin Boarford caught our hearts many years since."

Stargard gazed towards the castle. "My lord, the folks in town want you to establish yourself as castlemaster. Stay here and make the changes we need. Southfield has been slowly dying for a long time. We need to get out from under Earl Boarford's yoke."

They neared Besoin's house. Stargard made to bow, but Thorn stopped him. "Merchant Stargard, I appreciate your advice and support. None of us can assert Southfield's independence from unlawful control without working together, nor can one man alone improve everyone's life." Thorn continued, "I promise that I will stay and persevere. I will need help. Southfield will not regret this castlemaster." The two nodded to each other, and parted.

 

##########################################################################

Thorn was preoccupied at dinner, unable to bask in the family's enthusiasm for his projects. Alina wondered whether he was worried about the Earl arriving before the river diversion was completed. She suspected that any conversation about the singing voice would have to wait.

She was about to suggest retreating to bed when someone pounded on the front door.     Heike opened it to Rider Kai who rushed, worried, into the hall.

"My lord, Blenko has escaped from the castle."

"How did that happen?"

"I'm not sure, sir." Kai's serious gaze had a bemused cast. "I found his guard knifed -- apparently blinded first, then killed."

"The geas," gasped Alina.

"What, my lady?" asked Kai.

Besoin explained, "Blenko is carrying a geas. The spell is parasitical, feeding on Blenko's strengths. And, unquestionably, he is a master of duplicity and conniving. I'm sorry, Rider Kai. Your man probably didn't stand a chance."

"What have you done so far?" Thorn asked.

"I sent two men in search of Blenko," Rider Kai answered. "But they don't have any idea where to look. And I've notified Lady Rike."

Thorn stood and motioned Rider Kai to join him. "We need to get the word out fast. Go to the taverns quickly. I'll find Stargard." Thorn turned to Besoin, "Would you mind giving Learned Tancred the news? I wish to hear his suggestions."

Thorn didn't return until well after the sun had finally set. No sign of Blenko. Alina held Thorn tightly for a long time before either slept.

 

##############################################################################

Day 5

 

Thorn left for the docks early the next morning; word from the servants was that the populace was enthusiastically participating in the irrigation project. News that Blenko was at large didn't bother folks. Heike wagered that any citizens finding the former dockmaster would be loath to keep him alive until handed over to their incoming castlemaster. This attitude did not cheer Thorn at all.

Alina met with acolyte Rona, then Learned Kilda, and discovered that she needed to collect a few fresh herbs that weren't replenishing quickly enough in the infirmary garden. As she pocketed her knife and picked up her basket, a small noise at the door made her look up. She saw the girl who'd come the other day. "Pennz?" The skinny girl smiled, standing shyly, hugging the door frame.

"Good morning, Pennz," Alina smiled. "Come in."

Pennz entered slowly. She brushed a loose strand of hair from her face.

"How are you feeling?"

"Good, Dedicat." Pennz bobbed her head and looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. Alina thought, she was probably too upset to notice anything on her earlier visit.

"That's good," Alina paused. "Was everything all right with your father and brothers the other day?"

Pennz nodded. "They didn't know I was gone. And today they have work at the docks. I just have to cook dinner later."

"I'm collecting some herbs I need for medicines. Do you want to come?"

"Oh, yes," Pennz breathed.

Alina and Pennz took a northerly route through the woods, checking the open, sunny spots for mint and lovage to treat cough and sore throat. They found them, as well as chervil for burns, in a field not far from town. Seeing several rosemary bushes in the shade, Alina started towards the periphery of the field and the start of the woods where they would find thyme, like rosemary a remedy for wounds.

  "I need to dig up some sorrel for fever," Alina muttered, searching for both that and ground ivy. She and Pennz were concentrating on the ground. Alina only looked up when she heard a rustle and realized that Gernot Blenko, black with rage, was reaching out to grab her. He brandished a knife in his other hand.

Alina thrust her basket at Blenko's knife hand, and the knife went flying. Alina, losing her balance, fell into Blenko as he tripped backwards over a fallen log, and they dropped to the ground. Blenko didn't move.

"Run, Pennz! Run!" Alina screamed. Pennz turned and flew across the field.

Blenko suddenly half-rose and grabbed Alina's hair with one hand, twisted her down on her back, and smacked his other hand over her mouth. "Shut up, bitch!" He growled.

Alina slid her left hand down into her pocket, grabbing her garden knife. Then she bit Blenko's hand hard and jammed the knife into his side. Blenko screamed. As he rolled away from her, Alina jumped up, pulling the knife out and holding it out in front of her. Damn these skirts! she swore to herself.

Blenko held his side with his hand while slowly standing as far as a wrestler's crouch. His eyes held menace, and Alina could see the dark veins of the geas swirling inside him as he panted. She backed up into the woods; her only hope was that the wound would stop him before he could catch her. She turned, hiking up her skirts, and ran.

She could hear the thump of his boots and his gasps as he chased her deeper into the forest. Alina paid no attention to her direction; she cared only that she get away. Avoiding bushes and low branches, jumping over logs, and splashing through two rivulets of spring runoff, Alina kept running. By the time she was completely winded and finally looked back, Blenko was nowhere to be seen.

It took awhile for Alina to catch her breath. Her lungs ached and she was shaking. She had no idea where she was except that she'd started running from south side of the field. She had no idea whether she'd kept heading south. The woods were so dense that she was afraid that Blenko might be close by, just out of sight. She looked around nervously, trying to establish a landmark.

She knew that moss grew on the south side of trees. But these woods were too dense; the moss grew on all sides. She knew that the river continued mostly southerly as it stretched upstream from Southfield. If she were facing south now, she'd find the river by heading west.

Alina turned to her right and walked.

#############################################################################

 

Thorn was meeting with Southfield merchants when an acolyte came running from the Temple.

"My lord!" The boy was winded and scared. "Blenko! Attacked Lady Alina -- in the woods! Come!"

Everyone within hearing followed the boy back to the infirmary.

Pennz's tale was quickly told. Thorn and many men rushed to the field where Blenko had appeared. At the edge of the woods, Blenko had collapsed against a tree trunk. Thorn, seeing blood covering shirt and pants on the man's left side, grasped Blenko's shoulder, repeating his name.

Blenko's eyelids flickered, but there was nothing more.

A man covered the wound with a rag, and several others hauled the inert form and started carrying Blenko back to town. Thorn and the rest looked for signs of Alina. Besides her basket, someone found Blenko's knife. "She must have stabbed him with her own knife," one man remarked. "My lord," another addressed Thorn, "my Fedde and I," he gestured to a younger man, "hunt this land and know it well. Let us search for your lady." Several others volunteered as well.

Thorn wanted to run directly into the woods, following his boar senses. _I can seek her, smell her, find her quickly. My Alina!_ He knew himself a failure when he ordered Fedde and his father to seek Alina while he returned to Southfield.

 _Is this what it means to be castlemaster?_ Thorn wondered sourly.

#############################################################################

 

When he returned to the port, dockhands waved Thorn over to a small boat that had just arrived from downstream. Three men and a dog climbed out of the vessel; they must have been a tight fit. All were waving slightly on their feet from the exertion of poling upstream, but the men were anxious to talk.

"Here me! Here me!" one yelled to grab attention. He was a very tall, very thin bearded man in ancient black clothing. The second man was small and dumpy with formerly yellow pants and a grey jacket whose original color was unidentifiable. The third man was medium in all ways: height, weight, and attitude; he was accustomed to being ignored. The dog, a white and orange splotched spaniel, looked seasick.

Men and women crowded to witness the arrivals. "People of Southfield!" declaimed the tall man, "Danger looms ahead!"

Several men sniggered. "With that boat -- no wonder."

The short man intervened urgently. "No, No. You must understand. Troops from Rockall are coming to restore the dockmaster!"

The crowd's attention was riveted. Thorn pushed forward, and people quickly let him pass. The three men recognized an authority and instantly bowed.

"Welcome," Thorn announced, wondering if he intended good wishes at all. "I am Lord Thorn kin Boarford." The three men bowed again. The dog began scratching itself.

"What is your news?" Thorn asked.

The small man and the medium sized man nodded as the tall man pronounced histrionically: "My lord and people of Southfield. We stand before you as honorable citizens of Rockall. Reto Rugen, the despicable, stopped in Rockall two days ago. Vile Rugen ordered troops to sail and march up here to Southfield. We warn you! Southfield, beware!"

Thorn noticed Tiela Furth at his elbow. "Furth, did someone responsible really send us these men?"

Furth whispered confidentially. "My lord, every able bodied man in Rockall is watched. So who can they send?" He nodded encouragingly to the trio. "The village idiots."

The folk of Southfield understood the significance of the trio, who were dubbed Winken, Blinken, and Nod, and took their warning seriously. Tankards of ale were brought out quickly, including a saucer of brew for the dog.

Thorn sent messengers to Koloman and his work crews, to the castle, and to Stargard. Soon Rider Kai arrived with his men. Stargard came with a list of men available, their training, and weapons, mostly energetic dockworkers and farmers who were willing to defend their homes and livelihoods with their lives.

Stargard reported that he'd received regular tidings from the couriers headed north. Either they were talented at staying out of the way of the troops or sympathetic locals were protecting them. Probably both. At any rate, the messages to the hallow king were still traveling forward.

Rider Kai added several of his men to Stargard's locals to guard the road and the docks. Popular opinion favored the idea that troops from Rockall would advance through the northern woods into town, avoiding discovery by road or river. While Thorn doubted that scenario, he was glad volunteers were patrolling the perimeters.

Thorn wondered about the bravery, audacity, and sheer energy of the people at Southfield. They weren't passive, dull masses; they were determined, intelligent activists. His head spun with all the rational ideas thrown his way.

No word had come from Fedde's father and the men searching with him before Thorn finally walked back to Besoin's late in the evening. Besoin grunted at him, tight-lipped, and Thorn's sense of guilt at having betrayed Alina for the sake of the town surged.

The bed felt empty. Thorn slept little. He did not dream.

 

##############################################################################

 

 

Alina knew she was acting foolishly, but she continued to push through the woods despite her growing fatigue. She drank water from  two bubbling springs; it was fresh and sweet. The light dimmed slowly.

Suddenly, a huge shape loomed before her. Alina screamed and scrambled through a pricker bush, ripping the sleeve of her chemise and tearing scratches that bled down her arm. The shape stayed still, and Alina tried to breathe slowly and calm herself. After what seemed like an age, she took a step closer to the shape.

A very large moose. No antlers, so a cow. The moose turned her head -- as if pointing  -- and Alina followed. Just a few yards away she came across a ravine, probably cut out during a bad rainy season. It wasn't deep, but the sides were steep. In the ravine was the moose's calf.

"Oh," Alina breathed. She climbed down into the ravine, making soft sounds. The calf was motionless, but Alina knew that moose cows teach their calves to stay extremely still, especially when the mother goes foraging for food.

The calf had fallen into the ravine and couldn't get up because its long, scrawny legs had tangled in tree roots. Alina carefully unwove the legs from the roots. Then she waited; the calf tried and found it could stand. Alina shoved the calf up, then repositioned herself and pulled it. Then, all of a sudden the baby easily climbed up and out of the ravine. It immediately began nuzzling its mother teat.

Alina grinned in relief and the sense of success. She tore the dangling piece of tunic off from the rest and dropped it on the ground, pleased to be free of the messy rag.

She couldn't help it; she smiled at the mother moose. Then, she went on her way.

The experience had energized Alina and she almost strode for awhile. Her way angled down now, making her hopes rise that she was near the river. Perhaps then her exhaustion caught up with her, or perhaps she simply wasn't paying attention, but she suddenly stepped off into nothing and fell into a ravine herself. Her arms flailed, she hit her head on a tree root, and blacked out.

 

#############################################################################

 

"Halloo! Lady!" A whistle. "Lady!" Pain in her head. Sounds fading away. Alina groaned. She didn't want to open her eyes, so lifted her hand and felt her head. Well, she still had a head. That was a start. Alina opened her eyes. It was pitch black. But she knew she had fallen into a gulley, just like the moose calf. Oh, well.

Alina rearranged her limbs, relieved to discover that nothing hurt -- other than her head. While one end of the gulley was mostly tree roots and small stones, the other end consisted of soft dirt. Alina curled up. She might as well get some sleep before dawn.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  --  Day 6

 

Thorn awoke to banging on the front door and Heike's information that Rider Kai was awaiting him. In the hall Rider Kai explained that one ship carrying five soldiers had arrived at the docks just before break of day, while simultaneously five soldiers had arrived by road. The ten were currently housed in the castle dungeon awaiting Thorn's pleasure.

No news from Fedde's father.

Thorn sent a messages to Stargard and Learned Tancred to meet him at the castle and walked over to see his step-mother.

Rike welcomed Thorn warmly, if bleakly, deeply personally distressed by Alina's disappearance. She shook her head, "For so many years the welfare of the town came first with me; I left family and pride behind when I fought to help the town and its people. Now I'm different." She sighed. "I'm old. My personal loves have become more important to me than my civic duty."

She looked up at Thorn and smiled thinly. "I do not envy you your position, son."

He shook his head. _What if, what if, what if._

When Stargard and Learned Tancred arrived, they met with Thorn and Rike in her solar. There was no need for a more formal setting, and Thorn wanted the merchant and the divine to understand that they were essential to the castlemaster's plans.

"What additional threats will Reto Rugen ignite as he heads downriver?" Thorn asked.

Furth smiled, albeit grimly. "Fortunately, none. Rockall is the base of operations for the Earl's control of the river. The Earl's tyranny, and the Rockall folks' resistance, is well understood all the way north to the outskirts of Easthome."

"I've been thinking," Stargard added. "Merchants downriver are angry at the Earl's threats. They will start complaining to the powers in Easthome, if they haven't already. We might have more allies than we originally thought."

Furth rubbed his chin. "Demolishing parts of the berms and installing an irrigation system have already brought the people here together. Anyone further downstream who hears about this project is going to support you, my lord."

Thorn was about to respond when the door was opened by Rike's butler Kolding, announcing Fedde and his father. They entered grimly. Fedde strode up to Thorn and handed him a bloody strip of cloth. "We found this, my lord. We found no other sign of Lady Alina."

 

############################################################################  

 

Alina's head still hurt when she awoke, though the pain had diminished. She climbed out of the cut, feeling thirsty and hungry. She found another spring, as well as violets, marigolds, parsley, and chives for an attractive, if not satisfying, breakfast. As the sun rose, she walked into a glade, the first opening between the trees she'd seen since running from Blenko. There were dandelions. Salad, she thought glumly.

The trees were thinning out, and after several hours Alina came to another, far larger, glade. Suddenly, she heard a skylark's call, its trill and chatter; looking up, she only clouds, the bird somewhere beyond. Turning where the trees stood far apart, Alina caught sight of the river in the distance. _Thank you, Mother of Summer, with all my heart!_ Now she knew she was somewhere south of town. Yet as she worked her way towards the river, Alina began to wonder how she was going to follow it north. The turf was becoming soggier and harder to walk through. Tall reeds obscured her view. She abandoned her mudfilled shoes and stockings, then watched every step.

Eventually, Alina approached the river's edge. She could only slog slowly through the marshland at this point; it was saturated. Her robe and chemise sagged with mud. Then her eye caught something across the river -- a small boat?

Alina yelled as loudly as she could. When there was no response, she yelled again and again until her voice caught and she was out of breath. Then, a man appeared on the other bank with a raised hand. He turned and gestured, and another man appeared. They boarded the boat and started to pole over to Alina's side of the river. It was difficult; the current was so strong that they landed well north of Alina. One of the men got out and, grabbing a rope at the bow, splashed through the mud to Alina.

"Thank you! Hello!" She was so happy to see them that it took a minute to stop nodding at each other. She suddenly realized that they didn't understand what she was saying. Fortunately, her need was obvious.

Alina climbed into the boat, terrified it would tip over. It was small and narrow, with a flat bottom and low sides. The man who had pulled the boat up to her pulled it further upriver to allow for the current as they returned to the other side. When he climbed in, the gunwales weren't much above the river; occasionally, water sloshed into the hull.

At the far bank, one man jumped out, then helped Alina. On this side of the river the ground was solid. While the men pulled the boat onto the bank, Alina tried to wring mud out of her clothing, but gave up, and wandered toward a fire burning inside a round of stones in a clearing. She staggered over to the fire and saw three people wrapped up in blankets. Asleep?

The first was a boy. He was breathing roughly.

The second was a woman. She made no sound, but when Alina touched her, her forehead was hot.

The third was a man. He was dead. No ghost.

Alina returned to the boy and the woman. The boy was feverish, and his lungs were congested.

The two men came over. Alina suddenly felt overwhelmed and sat down hard. She brought her hand to her mouth, and one of the men dug into an oilcloth sack and brought her some bread and cheese. The other one brought her a shallow dish with water. She smiled and nodded her thanks, and bit off some bread. She looked at the woman and boy.

Then she looked at the dead man. She wasn't sure how to gesture that he was dead, but perhaps the men already knew.

After eating and drinking enough to get her wits about her, Alina rose and started looking around at the plants growing in the clearing and at the edge of the woods. She waved to the men when she found some wood sorrel; one of them came over, and she showed him that she needed the entire plant. She also gathered thyme, mint, rosemary, and ground ivy. The man willingly heated water. Alina used the leaves, stems, flowers, and seed pods of the sorrel to make a mash which she then thinned. When it was tepid, she and the men gently roused the boy and the woman, then dribbled drops of the potion into their mouths. Watching them, Alina realized that both souls, although weak, shone, and both possessed an added dark shape reminding her of Thorn's boar. Shamans.

Alina sat back and sighed. She was utterly exhausted. A movement from one of the men made her look at him clearly for the first time. He smiled. He had jumped from the boat and pulled it. He was tall and solid with thick, curly golden hair and sideburns. His eyes were bright blue. His wore a bright orange jerkin trimmed with a geometric pattern, brown pants, and high leather boots. He was tanned from lots of traveling.

She looked at the other man. He, too, was tall and muscular, and had a friendly aspect. His hair was very dark, long and thick, and much of his face was hidden beneath a thick moustache and full beard. Like his comrade, he had smiling blue eyes. He wore a blue jerkin with yellow, decorated trim over yellow pants and red-dyed leather boots. Both men struck her as young and in full plumage. Alina pictured a country full of bright colors. Maybe with lots of birds.

"Alina," she pointed to herself. Then she pointed the man wearing orange, asking "You?"

He thumped his chest proudly, "Aarne." They nodded to each other. Then Alina pointed to the man in blue, tilting her head as if questioning. "Jalmari," he announced. They practiced her name and she practiced theirs. _All right_. _We're all friends now._

A moan from the woman brought Alina to her side. She seemed uncomfortable, so Alina rearranged the blankets around her. After moving her head from side to side, the woman mumbled "Nemessos." Alina wasn't sure she'd heard right. The woman opened her eyes. "Alina," Alina pointed to herself. "Tuula," said the woman. Alina smiled at her, then looked up at Aarne, "Broth?" she asked him. He didn't need to know the word to offer her the sorrel drink. Alina offered some liquid to Tuula. The woman got down several sips. then closed her eyes for a minute. "Alina?"

"Yes?"

"Otso? Is he alive?"

Alina was happy that Tuula could speak her language, but she wasn't sure about Otso. "Is Otso the boy?"

"Yes."

"Yes. Otso is alive."

Tuula relaxed. She opened her eyes again. She smiled at Alina.

Alina wasn't sure how much Tuula could comprehend while being extremely sick, but she could tell that being reassured about the boy Otso would help the woman heal. She gave Tuula more to drink.

The boy also awakened. He gulped down some of the sorrel tea. He tried to move, but he was too weak. Alina smiled at him and told him her name. He replied with his own. Alina told him that Tuula was getting better too, and Otso smiled.

Alina gestured from Aarne and Jalmari to the dead man and cocked her head in inquiry. They shrugged their shoulders and spoke with each other briefly. She wondered if they were uncertain what to do with the body. She pointed to a grassy spot in the clearing. It wasn't far off, but it was far enough that neither Otso nor Tuula would see him by mistake. Aarne and Jalmari seemed to agree because they rose and moved the body as she'd indicated.

As the day ended, Alina made some teas from the mint, the rosemary, and the thyme. She hoped the wood sorrel would flush out the fever. The mint, rosemary, and thyme would soothe the lungs. Most of all, she wanted Tuula and Otso to drink fluids. Fortunately, they were obedient patients. Alina wondered how soon they'd be strong enough to travel downriver.

Aarne and Jalmari cooked up a delicious stew with dried meat. That, with more bread and cheese, was a feast to Alina. As soon as she'd eaten, she curled up in a blanket Jalmari had given her to sit on, and fell asleep.

 

##############################################################################

 

  Thorn returned to the docks with Furth and Stargard after their meeting. He thanked Fedde for his search, but everyone was horrified. As he walked, Thorn felt disembodied. _Why can't I sense her, wherever she is? I left her ten years ago. Returning -- have I left her to die? Would she have been better off if I hadn't returned? Why do I believe I would know if she were dead? Where is my Alina? Mother of Summer, please take care of her. I failed to._

Wart-studded Kuno Koloman and the young mathematical Gisil were anxious to talk with Thorn about the river project. They were progressing at a remarkable speed. The timber and iron needed for the weirs and waterwheels were readily at hand; in fact, machines used at the docks had partially assembled elements that could be used for the project. The crane for moving the heavy pieces across the river had worried Thorn, but that was already in place. Gisil double and triple checked measurements with Thorn; the machinery would be ready by the time the trenches were dug.

Kuno was loud and proud of the amount accomplished already. He enjoyed having a huge team of men under his supervision. For all that he was crude, he was honest and extremely hard-working. Kuno also inspired his men; Thorn remembered how troops would do anything Dun asked of them. It was the same for Kuno.

At last, late in the evening, Thorn returned to Besoin's house. He didn't want to face Alina's cousin, but he certainly wasn't going to run away from Besoin.

Besoin called to Thorn from his study. Thorn entered, remembering the same piles of manuscripts and papers from the day he first visited the house. Back when he wanted to play with Alina. He blinked from a thrust of pain in his chest.

Besoin inclined his head, perhaps reading the look on Thorn's face.

"How is Rike taking the news?" He asked Thorn.

"She's trying to put a strong face on." Rike had nearly tottered out of the meeting after Fedde had appeared. She'd looked very old.

Besoin nodded and changed the subject. "What's the word from downstream? How is the irrigation project progressing?" He gestured to Thorn to sit.

Thorn brought him up to date on the digging and construction. Besoin half-smiled when Thorn remarked on Kuno Koloman's success with his workers. "Ah, yes. You'll never see a project done so efficiently as this one."

Then Besoin returned to Alina. "What's your thought?"

Thorn pursed his lips and shook his head. "Frankly, I know barely more than I did before the search began. One rag with blood on it doesn't mean she's dead." He looked up defiantly, but Besoin was nodding in agreement.

"It does mean she was traveling in the direction where they found the rag."

Thorn's nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think she was lost?"

Besoin replied, "She was surely lost when she first ran away from Blenko. But the place where Feddo's men found the cloth is much closer to the river."

Thorn looked at him. "She would head towards the river because . . ."

"She knew it was to her west. She wouldn't know other landmarks."

Thorn wanted to jump up and grab a boat. Of course he couldn't. It was night. No boat could easily make it up river past Southfield with the current as fast as it was. But how would she get down to Southfield once she found the river? He didn't have to speak his concern aloud.

"Well, Thorn, I'm getting a bit candid in my old age." Besoin intertwined his fingers. "And neither of us is going to sleep soon. So, here, have a sip of this. I've kept it for times . . .  when I've needed to do some thinking." He had two small glasses nearby and a decanter of something. Thorn thought, so you planned to waylay me tonight. He accepted a glass and tasted: neat and sharp.

"Here's a bit of ancient history for you. Some twenty years ago I was approached by the then Earl Boarford, father of our present kin leader. The Earl had helped Xan arrange a second marriage, and someone needed to bring Rike kin Hartdale down to her new home. Cilla and I had just discovered that a young cousin had been orphaned and needed a home."

"And so you came to Southfield."

"Well, that's why we brought Rike to Southfield. That isn't why we settled here."

Thorn frowned, "I've wanted to ask you for years why you stayed here. I . . .  It always seemed odd to me that someone who had an active intellectual life would exile himself in this backwater."

Besoin laughed lightly. "You noticed? And I foolishly considered myself subtle."

Thorn asked, "Well, sir?"

Besoin served more of the liquor. "I was approached also by a divine of the Temple at Easthome. A petty saint, I believe, in the Mother's service. He asked me whether I was planning to make Southfield my home. I can tell you, I was taken aback by such a suggestion."

Thorn wondered, "Why did he want you to come here?"

"He said he'd had a dream. His vision included the Mother of Summer and a message about the old magic being abused. He remembered a need to reconcile the old magic with the Temple or something. He was certain that somehow this area mattered."

"That's it?" Thorn was bemused. "That's not much to go on."

"No, it isn't." Besoin took a sip.

"And?"

"And what?"

"What have you found in twenty years?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

Besoin sighed. "I moved my library here. Set up regular contact with Easthome. Enjoyed talks, not that they were especially entertaining or lively, with the Temple Divine of the time. Fortunately, now that Learned Tancred is here, I have more stimulation. But, nothing. In fact, ten years ago certain events made me suspect that the issue had resolved itself. Yet now the Mother speaks to Alina and you possess a boar."

Thorn frowned. "Do you have any idea why Southfield would be close to the old Weald magic?"

Besoin nodded, if in a slightly tipsy manner. "As a matter of fact, I do. It turns out that for many centuries an area not far up the river was especially sacred to the old magic."

"You've checked it?"

"I did early on. Just rocks with old writing. Ruins, you know. Nothing left."

"What was the site called?"

"Nemessos."

##############################################################################

Day 7

             

 

Alina woke early, but not before Aarne and Jalmari had started cooking dried meat for breakfast. When Otso awoke, he was as ravenous as a healthy ten year old. Alina thought he would mend quickly. Tuula was the weaker of the two, but she was able to eat a little in addition to drinking herb teas. Neither ran a fever.

After the two had settled down after food, Alina sat cross-legged between them.

"Tuula, Otso, what is your story?"

Tuula looked worn and sad, but Otso was eager to talk. "We were coming to Nemessos. We nearly didn't make it, but," he said proudly, "here we are."

"What is Nemessos?" Alina asked bemused.

Tuula's face darkened. "You're from around here? Otso, don't say anything."

Alina blinked in surprise. "You can talk to me. Don't worry."

Tuula held Otso's arm. "No. They kill people like us around here, Otso."

"What do you mean?" Alina exclaimed hotly. All four were staring at her as if she were a murderer.

She saw Tuula's bright soul and the denseness beyond it, and suddenly added, "I know you're a shaman, Tuula."

Tuula stared at her. "What are you?"

Alina responded quietly, "The Mother of Summer kissed my forehead."

Otso translated for the two men while Tuula looked dumbfounded.

Alina added,  "The Goddess wants me to heal the rift between shaman magic and the Temple." _Though I have no idea how I'll do it._

Tuula and Otso looked confused, although Otso continued translating for Aarne and Jalmari's sake. The two men grinned broadly then and added their thoughts in their language.

Otso said, "Aarne and Jalmari say that both shaman ways and Temple ways are honored where they come from, even though we're the first shamans they've met." He added, "The Temple lets people follow old ways in Kopstal, where Tuula and I come from."

Tuula said, "We've heard many tales of Darthacans destroying anything to do with shaman magic."

"That's true."

"Isn't the Weald part of Darthaca?"

"Well, yes," Alina admitted, "Darthaca defeated the Weald four hundred years ago. But we have our own government and Temple in Easthome. And in the past ten years the king has been trying to find out more about the old magic."

Tuula did not look convinced. Alina understood why, so she asked, "What is Nemessos? Why did you come so far north?"

Otso looked at Tuula. She shrugged as if to say, you might as well go ahead; we're in for it now. So Otso began, "Nemessos means sacred forest in the old tongue."

Again he glanced at Tuula, then continued. "In the ancient days many wisdom animals came from Nemessos. We wondered if that was true. We wanted to see the old site."

Tuula broke in. "We wished to atone. We thought that this very special spot, one which no one visited for centuries, could bring us peace."

_For what do you need to atone?_ _I need to remember this_. She remarked, "So Nemessos has been here, unknown to us only a short distance away, and not used by anyone from the south?"

Both Otso and Tuula nodded.

"What did you find?"

They looked surprised. "We haven't been there yet. We became ill coming down this last river."

A squeak from Aarne induced Otso to translate what was being discussed. He added from Aarne, "We hired these South Seas men to transport us. But we were robbed in Lutetia and their boat was burned. So we've walked and used river boats since then."

Alina was impressed. "You show deep devotion to have continued your pilgrimage despite such hardships."

Tuula said, "So now we need to climb up to Nemessos."

"How far is it?"

"I do not know," Tuula answered defiantly. Alina thought despondently, no one getting this close to her goal will be willing to wait a few more days while they take me home.

"Well," she suggested brightly. "Why don't we ask the South Seas men to reconnoiter? They could climb a ways up and see if they find the site -- Nemessos."

Tuula looked shocked, and Otso looked as if he wouldn't let anyone else have the fun of rediscovery. Alina sighed inwardly.

"Or," she added, "We could all go down to my town, Southfield. When you feel better, you could come back and climb up the mountain."

Again, she only had to look at them to know their determination.

"All right," Alina acquiesced. "Let's get more food into you, more rest, and see how soon you are well enough to seek Nemessos."

 

##############################################################################

 

Thorn headed for the docks at daybreak to muster up a boat. A large crowd was going to work: men were ferried across the river to dig while others were preparing loads to be hoisted across using the crane. Cables had been installed to make crossing easier despite the current. Stargard had ordered another, removable cable further downriver to prevent ships from attacking by surprise.

Amid the hustling people and yells, Thorn sought out the dockmaster, Old Balder. He was sitting on a barrel, talking animatedly with a nodding man. As Thorn approached, Balder's listener stood at attention, but Balder stayed comfortably seated.

"Kritsyn!" Thorn exclaimed.

"Ready for duty, sir." Kritsyn grinned, "In fact, already on duty. We have plans for the Earl's tricks."

Thorn looked confused, and Balder interrupted. "Just got news, m'lord. Rugen's coming back for a visit."

A yell made them turn around, and Stargard came running up. "My lord, I've been looking for you."

Thorn nodded, and Stargard explained that both ships and land troops were approaching.

"How soon?"

"Our lookouts now span the river well below Rockall; the Earl himself is coming." Stargard shook his head, then continued, "the soonest they can get up this far is the day after tomorrow."

Thorn realized that he could not leave Southfield to search for Alina when a major attack was imminent. He looked at the three men. "I need someone to take a boat southwards, up river. It's possible Alina might have found her way there."

Kritsyn immediately insisted that he should go and was deeply disappointed when Thorn refused. The captain was needed to help defend the town. Old Balder nodded. "I know just the team: my two granddaughters."

He added complacently, "Best fisherwomen -- or fishermen in any competition -- in these parts. They can't sew, but they're better than a pair of mermaids when it comes to traveling on the river." He sat back, emanating grandfatherly pride. "They poled you across the river, my lord."

"All right," Thorn said. "Ask Fedde to give them an approximate place to look for Alina." He explained, "I think she headed towards the river because she didn't have any other landmarks to use to get her bearings."

Old Balder managed to quickly arrange for the girls to head south without rising from his barrel to do it.

Thorn saw Kritsyn's anger; yes, they both loved Alina, and Kritsyn would have put her ahead of any other concern. Fortunately for Thorn, Alina preferred him over the captain. Maybe not so fortunate for Alina.

 

##############################################################################

 

Alina was amused by Otso's quick recovery and impressed that the South Seas men had brought so much food. They needed it with a hungry boy to feed. Aarne cooked up more bread, flavoring the hard loaves with fresh herbs. Otso was up and prowling around the camp early in the day. Fortunately, Aarne and Jalmari had burned the body after Tuula explained she had released the shaman's raven; a healer, the Mother of Summer had taken up his soul.

Tuula appeared worn out mentally as well as physically. She was able to sit up with bags supporting her back, but she looked frail. She had a slender, delicate frame, and the translucent veils she wore over her chemise caught the light and gave her a aura of beauty and mystery. Alina sat down next to her feeling like an elephant after a mudbath.

"Tuula, I need to know more about why you came to Nemessos and what your plans are."

Tuula looked down at the pan of herb tea in her hand.

"Who was the man who died?"

Tuula sighed. "He was another shaman from Kopstal."

"Was he your husband?"

"No," Tuula shook her head. "We were sent -- we came down together with Otso. We hired Aarne and Jalmari. They're good sailors, and they're just as good tracking on land. But then we were robbed." She looked away. "It has taken so long to get here. When Otso and I became ill, we were lucky to land just where we were heading." She signed the five gods.

"Who sent you?"

Tuula shook her head.

"All right," Alina tried again. "Why are you here? You've traveled too far just for a visit to a holy shrine."

Silence, then acquiescence.

"Nemessos is sacred to the wisdom animals. We want to preserve the site."

Alina swallowed. "You planned to stay here?"

Tuula looked up at her. "I plan to stay here. Still." Defiance: her look said, you'll have to kill me to make me leave.

Alina nodded. She couldn't stop herself from contemplating the convenience of a shaman close by should Thorn need . . .  well, a shaman in the area for a long time. But what would the Temple in Easthome have to say about it? How would the locals react? In a split second Alina knew that she would defend Tuula, Otso, and Nemessos.

She focused on Tuula. "I believe in your faith and in your resolve." Tuula's surprise was clear. "I can't promise that things will go easily for you. . . . In truth, I see troubles. But you will have my support and the support of the castlemaster at Southfield. And the Temple there, too."

Tuula bit her lip, suspicious. "How do you know?"

Alina smiled, "The new castlemaster will be invested on the Lady of Summer's Day. He is my husband."

"Oh," Tuula took in this news, then half-smiled. "Oh. That is good." She looked at Alina, "and you are a saint?"

Alina's reaction was to say no. But she couldn't. She almost thought she heard a chuckle far off. "Yes, the Goddess uses me."

Tuula looked at Alina speculatively. "I knew that a few herbs alone couldn't cure Otso and me so quickly."

"That means," Alina suggested, "that you'll feel well enough to try the climb to Nemessos in the morning?"

Tuula smiled fully. "I have eagerly sought the climb. I will be ready."

 

#############################################################################

 

"I don't understand how Rugen already reported to the Earl," Thorn said, "and the Earl has had time to marshall a fleet and troops and head our way."

He sat with Learned Tancred and Besoin around a table in the Boar & Stork Tavern. It had become the informal headquarters for the public works projects and the defense against Earl Boarford.

"I wonder how many men the Earl has spelled with a geas," Besoin mused. "Such a spell is complicated. Just creating it drains the mage."

"Someone at the Temple in Easthome must have sensed that the Earl was playing with magic," Learned Tancred remarked. "Even if he kept to Kingstown and the business side of the city, someone would have sensed his powers. The city is packed with sorcerers and petty saints."

Thorn looked up. "Then he has been avoiding the city. And staying some place upriver."

Besoin nodded. "So that he can receive news quickly from Rugen and Blenko."

Thorn continued. "Because the castlemastership here is in flux, and the Earl considers it vital to keep Southfield under his control."

Learned Tancred looked at Thorn. "A castlemaster swears fealty to his liege lord. Thorn, have you done so? Or more exactly, would you do so?"

_So I am a traitor. Will the hallow king support the Earl? Will I be tried and executed?_ "No," Thorn answered the divine. "A liege lord's responsibility cuts two ways: he earns the total support of his followers because he is dedicated to their best interests."

"The Earl will not make you castlemaster." Learned Tancred stated.

"Then I will earn it from the people," Thorn answered. "And I will plea to the hallow king to confirm it."

 

#############################################################################

Day 8

 

Otso jogged ahead of the adults as they followed the path leading from the back of the campsite. It twisted south first, inclining slightly. Alina knew that this foray was taken on faith: was this the right path? what would they find at Nemessos? Aarne and Jalmari were attentive to Tuula, trying to guess her needs. Alina smiled to herself. They would have carried her if needed.

They came to a sharp curve and realized that the path was a series of switchbacks. At this first curve was a spring whose water ran between cut stones. Most of the stones had fallen, but the stonemason's work was clear; he had built a round in which the water would pool. Alina ran her fingers over the moss-covered cut stone; she could feel grooves of decorations, perhaps writing.

The path swept to the north now; at the curve ending this stretch, a single stone as tall as Aarne was positioned. Roughly rectangular, its jagged edges emphasized the sense that it was reaching to the heavens. Alina saw strokes of reds and blacks blurring in the gray of the stone. They were made more beautiful by the green and yellow lichen which spread across the flat front.

"Did the shamans erect this?" She asked Tuula.

Tuula shook her head. "They come from even older ways of worshipping the gods. This one was hauled far by some ancient race."

Otso translated the conversation for the men, and Jalmari responded. "Jalmari says that he has seen similar stone marvels in the lands of the South Seas," Otso reported.

After three more switchbacks, each of which was marked by a standing stone, the path widened, then straightened into an open space. Tuula stepped forward, the rest following. Otso spoke in surprise and disappointment, "There's nothing here!"

Alina saw a wide open space before her. They were at the top of the mountain. She turned, slowly, all the way around. The view was breathtaking. She could see the river and down past Southfield and the plains. As she continued turning the high peaks off to the east and south, some with white, snow-capped peaks. As she turned south to west, the mountains retreated, and, crossing the river again, sloped into hills and flatland that extended forever.

Aarne and Jalmari were wandering around the hilltop glade. Otso was scouting out the periphery. Tuula stood. Alina looked at the open clearing, surprised because it was covered with rich, green grasses, pointed-leaved herbs, tiny and large flowers, wide open and basking in the sunlight. There was no breeze.

Tuula smiled. "It is true."

"What is?"

"This is home." Everything became still. Aarne, Jalmari, Otso, and Alina froze where they stood.

A giant deer with two fauns emerged from the woods due south. It paused, then walked slowly across the field to Tuula. The beast stopped before her as if in obeisance. Tuula bowed to the deer.

A bear and her cub stood at the edge of the forest to the north.

An eagle soared above. Tuula raised her arm, and the eagle came to rest on it, gently.

Alina felt something by her feet. She looked down to see a fox followed by four kits.

Nemessos. The sacred home of the wisdom animals. Its shaman had returned. Tuula began to sing. Her voice was pure, her song incandescent.

 

##############################################################################

 

Thorn tensed as the floating crane -- skinny Gisil's brilliant idea -- lifted up the first stone piece for the weir from the dock. A little while later, as he watched the stone slowly settle in its wooden frame on the other side of the river, he let out a sigh. He felt light-headed. He must have been holding his breath. A cheer went up, and the crowd on the dock hailed the mass of workmen on the far shore. They continued with the other sections of the weir before moving downstream to insert the waterwheel at the other end of the newly dug irrigation canal.

Thorn decided that he hated waiting. On the other hand, he temporized, he enjoyed watching really adept men and women complete their jobs. His father Xan had seldom left the castle, and the only times Thorn had wandered the streets of Southfield were with Alina, occasionally finding an injured stray dog or cat to mend.

He hadn't realized how clever people were. How had theirs lives been spent, waiting all those years, unable to express -- let alone realize -- their ideas?

Messages came in late in the afternoon that the Earl's progress was steady. No one could tell whether he was planning to attack first by land or by water. Or simultaneously.

 

##############################################################################

 

Jalmari and Alina started back to camp before the others. Alina privately thought that Tuula might resist returning at all. At least Aarne would look out for her.

As they came though the last bit of woods, Alina saw people at the campsite. Two young women were walking about, checking the banked fire.

"Hello!" Alina called. The girls looked up, and broad grins spread across their faces. They ran over to her, "Lady! Lady Alina!"

Alina recognized them from Southfield and shared hugs. "What are your names? I'm so happy you found us!" she laughed.

"I'm Agata!"

"I'm Ishild," said the second. "Lord Thorn sent us to find you."

Her sister continued, "We're good at poling our boat -- and rowing and sailing."

Ishild interrupted, "And we're good at fishing and finding you!" They both giggled.

Jalmari didn't speak their language, but he looked impressed. Then they laughed up at him, and he looked stunned.

"We need to return you to your lord," Agata said proudly.

"Before the Earl attacks!" Ishild said importantly.

"What? What is happening in Southfield?" Alina demanded.

The news came in rough harmony, both girls speaking over each other. Alina caught the gist of it and worried about how long before rowing -- or poling -- back to town. She would have to wait for the others to return from the mountain. And, despite the light late into the evening, it was too late in the day to leave. She explained this to Agata and Ishild who accepted it philosophically. Their interest had shifted to Jalmari who, they felt, needed some language lessons.

Alina looked around, wondering what needed to be packed for the trip home in the morning.

 

##############################################################################

Day 9

 

The opening of the weir brought everyone out, including shop workers and Temple acolytes, the men who fashioned the machinery, as well as those digging the ditches.

Thorn stayed on the docks, allowing Kuno Koloman to oversee the opening. The big man declaimed loudly, and Thorn felt fortunate that the curse-studded language couldn't be heard across the water. Instead, Koloman's gestures spoke volumes. He conducted each step with his arms, spreading them out as men hacked away the wooden frame which blocked the hole made in the berm, the lifting them as the water poured into the weir and through to the ditches. Men along the channel signaled as the water passed them. The field was large, so it was awhile before the men at the other end signaled to break the wooden dam blocking the waterwheel. The timing was right, and the large waterwheel began turning slowly.

A huge cheer went up which lasted for several minutes.

Then yells from a group of boys who had secured places at the southernmost point of the docks. They were screaming, laughing, and pointing at two boats smoothly floating downriver on the current. Ishild and Agata stood in the first boat, with poles at the ready, and Alina and Otso were with them. Tuula rode in the second boat, manned by Aarne and Jalmari.

Ishild and Agata expertly brought their boat in at the dock where Thorn stood. He pushed by the men who were rushing to help Alina climb out. Thorn handed her up to the dock and held her as close as he could. Another happy roar went up.

Thorn and Alina were pulled into the tavern along with Otso, Ishild, Agata, Tuula, Aarne, and Jalmari. Ale, bread, meat, and cheese were pushed at them in welcome, and in the certainty that no one could survive more than several hours in the wild without real food.

Alina sat as close as she could to Thorn on the bench. She wanted to stay glued to him and never lose his touch. Thorn held her tightly around her waist.

Alina wasn't sure how much to say about Tuula and her quest in public. She introduced everyone around, briefly describing Tuula and Otso as pilgrims. As far as the townspeople were concerned, all strangers were welcome, and the South Seas men were more exotic -- and more familiar as sailors -- than the quiet woman and boy.

"Thorn," she whispered, "can we take Tuula and Otso to meet with Learned Tancred and Besoin? Privately?"

He nodded, and set a messenger off; the group would meet at the Temple as soon as possible. Otso had chugged down a lot of food, but needed another helping before they could pull him away from the tavern. The South Seas men stayed with Old Balder's granddaughters and the crowd in the docks.

 

############################################################################

 

"Tuula has come to the sacred forest of Nemessos for the sake of the wisdom animals," Alina explained when Besoin joined them and they had collected in the Learned Tancred's study. "She and Otso are shamans."

"So there really is a shrine at Nemessos?" Learned Tancred and Besoin both leaned forward eagerly.

"Yes and no," Alina explained how the pathway was designed as a sacred approach, yet the open field was nature's shrine to the spirit animals.

"What are your plans?" Learned Tancred asked Tuula.

"Otso and I will build a shelter at the clearing by the river where we camped," Tuula said. "We aren't needed to care for the animals. Our job is to honor them and advise pilgrims who wish to visit."

Thorn could see a need to protect the animals once Nemessos became known; he knew Besoin and the divine were thinking the same thing.

"I will do everything in my power," he told Tuula and Otso, "to help you. We will begin with building the shelter so that you have comfortable living quarters. We can make sure that you have food and supplies."

Learned Tancred looked thoughtful. "I will contact the Temple in Easthome. I don't know the current position on shamans and wisdom animals. I do know we are blessed with saints and divines who do not fear the old magic. They deserve our trust in devising plans to keep you and the animals safe."

Thorn hoped Learned Tancred's optimism was justified.

Just then, an acolyte came rushing into the room. "Excuse me, Learned! Scouts have arrived with urgent messages for Lord Thorn!"

Thorn rushed out of the room ahead while the rest followed. Stargard and several men were coming along the street; Thorn signaled them all to meet at the tavern. He sent messages to Rider Kai and Kritsyn as well.

The Earl's flotilla as well as his riders were above Rockall. Kritsyn took his troop of riders to guard the road. In addition, Stargard had scouts posted along the route, as well as on both sides of the river. Rider Kai and his riders would act as back up to protect the town and castle. Old Balder had a dozen riverboats prepared with men and women ready to fight. The dockworkers quickly prepared to be soldiers; their tools were sharp enough.  The men standing in the newly irrigated fields wielded their shovels.

Rider Kai had brought a horse for Thorn, as well as his tabard and his weapons. Thorn rode down to the edge of town with Kritsyn's troop. It was easy to see the river from the road.

The Earl's boats were visible already. Thorn could hear the Earl's riders before he could see them; they arrived first, twenty or so, stopping some yards away from Thorn.

Their leader rode up to Thorn.

"I ride for Earl Velten kin Boarford," he announced. "You are ordered to drop your weapons."

Thorn looked the man up and down. "Earl Boarford approaches Southfield with weapons and soldiers. I would speak with him first."

The man gazed at Thorn haughtily, "There is no castlemaster in Southfield; therefore, there is no one in command with whom the Earl will speak."

"I am Lord Thorn kin Boarford. I am the brother of the former castlemaster."

"You are a traitor if you raise arms against your Earl."

"I would speak with Earl Velten kin Boarford."

"Lower your weapons first."

"No. I would speak with the Earl."

Suddenly two of the Earl's men from the back raised their crossbows and fired. One of Kritsyn's men gasped and fell from his horse.

Thorn's boar rose in fury. "Attack!" he screamed, pulling out his sword. Time stilled as he swung it wide and lunged at the leader, slicing his head off in one movement.

Thorn drove well into the center of the riders, catching one at his ears, another down his arm. This enabled Kritsyn and the others to quickly rush in, scattering them. Kritsyn took down men on either side of him. Crossbow shots from the trees created havoc for the Earl's men.

Alina could see the ruckus on the road as Thorn attacked in retaliation. But her attention switched to the flotilla. The Earl's ships, all rowed, had rounded the bend, about to pass the waterwheel. She saw a blue flash of light, and one of Old Balder's boats caught fire. Crewmembers screamed. The boat to its right became tangled in the burning mess.

Then a ten foot stretch of earth was rent where men were standing in the field. Bodies were thrown by the force. Sounds died down as people stared in shock. A ghost rose.

Alina rushed to Stargard. "I can see the sorcerer!" she cried. He looked at her blankly.

"Stargard! See the man with the big ears in the bow of the third boat? He's a sorcerer! Kill him!" She almost shook the merchant.

Stargard instantly signaled for archers to focus on that man. Three tries before the man fell, no more uncanny assaults.

The fight shifted. Women on the riverbank shot burning arrows onto the nearest boats, terrifying the rowers. Several boats, riding deeper in the water than the flat-bottomed style used locally, jammed on Stargard's underwater defensive cable; shallower boats hit the cables running across to the construction area. The Earl's boats ran into each other, confusing archers and rowers. The swift current pushed Old Balder's boats into the midst of the Earl's boats; the same current caused the Earl's boats to swing out of control.

A trumpet blast from the boat in the rear caused Thorn to signal Southfield to stop fighting. Old Balder's boats easily reversed course and returned to the dock. The crew of the burning boat was brought ashore. Alina and others from the infirmary began to treat the crew's wounds. Two Southfield boats crossed to pick up the wounded from the field; one man was dead. Thorn, Kritsyn, and their men repositioned themselves on the road. They waited for men from the Earl's boats to clear up the bodies of the riders.

The Earl's boats took longer to sort out. They couldn't approach the docks because of the cables. So they tied up near Thorn's position on the road. Several men were coughing as they splashed to the shore to secure their boats. Most were swearing.

Learned Kilda and an acolyte from the Mother's Mercy infirmary offered to help tend the Earl's wounded. While the wounded were brought to the Temple physician, the dead from the boats and the riders' bodies were laid side by side along the riverbank. Thorn saw several men standing over a body. Disgusted that they might be desecrating the dead, he strode over. One of his soldiers pointed and said, "The sorcerer, my lord." Thorn gazed at the lifeless body: a man with strange, large ears and no left arm.

The boat from the rear arrived formally. The Earl and three of his henchmen debarked after several of his rowers had tied the boat along the shore.

The Earl strode up to the road. The Boarford height and white-blonde hair combined with black leather, silver and jeweled buckles and decorations, and fur linings to exude power and menace. Thorn waited for him.

"You traitor," Earl Velten kin Boarford snarled at Thorn.

"Your archers attacked," Thorn stated. "killing one of my men while I was still in parley."

"He killed the wrong one," the Earl returned sarcastically.

"I think it is time we spoke together. At the castle."

The Earl didn't have much choice. But he fumed when Thorn ordered his followers to make sure the Earl's men remained by their boats. Kritsyn and his men took charge. Earl Boarford was left with his three. Thorn was careful not to turn his back on any of them.

Just then he heard the sound of a galloping horse. He paused, and a scout appeared down the road. "My lord!" The man yelled. He pulled up to Thorn, gasping for breath. "The King's men. They're approaching. About an hour away."

"Well, well," said the Earl, blandly. "I wonder what sort of death we can arrange for you, traitor."

 

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That hour was one of the worst in Thorn's life.

Thorn and the Earl walked up to the castle, along with the Earl's three men and Rider Kai and his troop.

The townspeople were present but quiet as Thorn and the Earl walked through the town. Thorn realized how thoroughly angry these people were. They knew the Earl had run roughshod over them for years. Thorn was suddenly glad that they didn't hate him the way they hated Earl Boarford.

At the castle Thorn led the Earl into the great hall. Servants had laid out food on tables. Thorn was surprised that Rike did not appear.

The Earl looked around. "I remember your father," he remarked. "A fine castlemaster. No wonder he threw you out."

"Did you put a geas on him?" The Earl looked startled at Thorn's question. "As you did to Blenko and Rugen?"

"Ah, and where is Blenko?"

"He hasn't regained consciousness since he attacked a woman and she knifed him to get away."

"Remarkable woman."

"My wife."

"Ah."

Thorn felt the sound of approaching men as a huge relief, even if he was about to be arrested. He couldn't keep up small talk with Earl Velten.

The door was thrown open and a tall man entered first, wearing a purple coat with silver thread over a wine-dyed jerkin, followed by a short man in the gray robe and carmine shoulder braid of a divine of the Father of Winter. An additional braid, red with gold cord running through it, indicated that he was a senior scholar of jurisprudence. Half a dozen riders followed them.

"Earl Hagan kin Hawkmoor," announced Kolding, Lady Rike's butler. "And Learned Eugen."

Thorn blinked. The tall, dark-haired and dark-skinned Earl Hawkmoor strode up and grasped his hand. "Thorn! I can't believe it's you."

Thorn smiled, returning the clasp and extending it to a formal hug and kisses on both cheeks. "Hagan! You're the Earl now." He paused. "I'm sorry, then. My sympathies on your father's death."

Hagan nodded and smiled. "That was over two years ago."

Earl Boarford cleared his throat ironically. "I don't mean to interrupt your chat, but we have a grave situation here."

Hagan turned to Earl Boarford. "I agree. It's a very serious matter. Treason to the state. Earl Velten kin Boarford, I arrest you in the name of the hallow king for allegedly ordering murders and other subjugation of the people of Rockall."

Earl Boarford blinked, then roared. Hagan's men moved forward quickly to subdue him.

 

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Alina looked around the table. Earl Hawkmoor and Thorn were reminiscing about their times serving together under then Prince-Marshall Biast. The two divines, Learned Tancred and Learned Eugen chatted quietly, although the Easthome divine kept glancing at Tuula. Rike and Tuula were comparing notes on travel (something Rike dearly wished to do). Besoin spoke the language of the South Seas people, although Alina suspected that Aarne and Jalmari mostly wanted to learn pick up lines to use on pretty girls such as Old Balder's granddaughters. Even Kirsa and Otso seemed to have much to share.

It didn't seem possible that she need no longer live in fear. She glanced at Thorn, who sensed her look and sent her a quick smile. Yes, possibly things could work out. Well. Beautifully. Happily.

Hagan looked up; then his expression turned serious, and he addressed the group. "We need to talk about what why Learned Eugen and I came south. And we need to address what has happened here. What is happening here at Southfield." Alina's stomach churned.

Hagan cleared his throat and looked at Besoin and then at Thorn. "The Hallow King has had his eye on the towns along the southern Stork for the ten years he has led us. Certainly, he was already concerned from the reports Besoin had been sending."

Heads went up inquiringly. Besoin waved aside a chance to speak.

Hagan continued, "Furthermore, he was impressed with Dun and you, Thorn, when you first came to Easthome. I heard he was distressed when you disappeared, but his spies in Ibra couldn't find a sign of you."

Hagan looked at Thorn. "King Biast was seriously concerned about your father's actions as castlemaster. Yes, Lord Xan was part of the old guard of conservatives, but he avoided invitations to visit Easthome and consistently parroted Earl Boarford's positions."

Rike looked stunned. "We could have met the Hallow King? We could have traveled? My husband insisted that the castle would be in danger if he left the premises."

Hagan looked at Thorn again. "Earl Boarford was elevated to his position thirteen years ago. Did you find your father increasingly intolerant after that time?"

Thorn's eyes widened. "Well, we never had a calm relationship, but our worst arguments occurred in those last three years. Of course, you know he exiled me a decade ago."

Hagan nodded. "Yes." He looked at Rike. "Did you see any change?"

Rike's thoughtful frown slipped into an expression of sadness. "Mmmm. . . .  I saw a man who I sincerely admired become petty and abusive. I attributed his change to a kind of jealousy men sometimes hold for their sons: youth, promise, energy, ideas, future."

Besoin growled, "I suspect that Earl Boarford had much to do with Xan's loss of a future."

Alina asked, "Do you think Earl Boarford cast a geas on Lord Xan?"

At Hagan's grunt of surprise, Thorn told him, "Both of Earl Boarford's officers -- Reto Rugen and Gernot Blenko -- carried geas." Thorn turned to Learned Eugen, "I have wondered whether both my father and my brother were under uncanny control."

Learned Eugen responded, "I do not know. I am no saint, nor sorcerer, myself."

"My wife is god-touched," Thorn said. Hagan and the divine stared at Alina. She felt uncomfortable, as if she were claiming something she didn't own.

"I saw purple veins convulsing around Rugen's soul, then the same in Blenko," Alina explained.

Hagan shrugged. "Thorn, I can't tell you." He focused again. "What about Dun?"

Rike and Besoin looked at each other. "Dun was already very weak when he returned home at Xan's death. No, I don't have proof that Earl Boarford contributed to Dun's malady," Rike sighed.

Hagan raised his hands, palms up. "Well, that's in the past."

"What caused the hallow king to send you to arrest Earl Boarford at this time? Not that I object," Thorn asked.

"Two things: the Earl's treatment of Rockall and the vacancy Dun left in this castlemastership. News of the atrocities at Rockall has been trickling into Easthome. King Biast is furious that the reforms he has instituted were blatantly disregarded by Earl Boarford. Boarford's name had come up far too often to overlook any longer. Frankly, King Biast was embarrassed when several merchants, who had fled Rockall, begged to present their stories to him. The Earl's intimidation of the people of Rockall was atrocious and is the specific reason for his treason charge."

"At the same time," Hagan continued, "a vacancy here gave Earl Boarford a significant opportunity to completely control the southern stretch of river. Too many raw materials and other goods depend on shipping to allow one kin to run it as his private fiefdom."

Hagan's lips curved unexpectedly. "King Biast hasn't forgotten you, Thorn. When spies reported that a strange, white-haired man was seen heading south, we hoped it was you. It just didn't seem possible we would have the right man show up for the castlemastership. But you Boarfords have that odd pale hair." He grinned, rubbing his curly black locks. "Anyway, so King Biast ordered us to come south to arrest Boarford."

Thorn smiled and nodded in acceptance.

Besoin gave a small wave, "My lord?"

Hagan nodded.

"There is a second issue even more singular than Earl Boarford's growing despotism." Besoin looked around at the different faces. "When I moved to Southfield twenty years ago, I was sent, in part, to discover as much as I could about the old magic ways that historically had a center here."

Both Hagan and Eugen gasped.

Besoin continued, "For all my books and the research I carried out here, I could find no signs of shamans, wisdom animals, or Old Weald magic. Unlike the fens, we no longer have even a tiny group of people whose roots predated Audar's massacres." He nodded at Learned Tancred.

The divine remarked, "My greatest regret in the years I've lived in Southfield is that we never had a saint nor a petty saint in the Temple." It was Besoin's turn to nod. "I could no more sense a shaman than I could a demon. Or someone bespelled."

"Earl Boarford used a sorcerer against us this afternoon," Thorn told Hagan. "He was extremely powerful; he set fire to a boat and ripped a strip of land out of the ground."

"A sorcerer? Are you sure? How did you stop him?" Earl Hawkmoor asked.

"I saw him," Alina said. "Well, I saw a purple light come from him, and then the ground tore. So I told Stargard, and he directed his archers to aim for the man."

Learned Eugen said seriously, "If there is a Temple sorcerer who has turned renegade, we have an extremely serious situation."

Learned Tancred looked at him. "The sorcerer died. Which means --"

Eugen blenched, "To whom did his demon jump?"

A brief silence. Thorn remarked, "It must have jumped to one of the Earl's men. You'll have to figure out who it is."

Hagan blinked at Alina. "How were you able to see the demon. . . .  Lady, who is your god?"

"The Mother of Summer. She only appeared to me, umm, several days ago." Alina couldn't begin to count back. "She . . . well, I think she has guided my hands in medicine for years. But she told me she wanted to mend the rift between shaman magic and our modern ways."

Both Earl Hawkmoor and Learned Eugen looked bemused. There was a pause. "Lady Alina, Lord Besoin, the old magic, while no longer considered heretical, is --" 

Thorn said quietly, "Hagan, when I was kidnapped two years ago, I ended up possessing a wisdom boar."

There was another silence.

Thorn continued, "The sorcerer who forced the rite on me was the same sorcerer killed today."

Hagan, tight-lipped, answered, "That is one more charge Earl Boarford must answer for."

Learned Eugen turned to Besoin, "Lord Falconcrest, you were just saying you found no trace of shamans or spirit animals in Southfield."

"Until now," Besoin explained. "You see, as I accumulated tales of ancient lore, I realized that a place existed in this area which was the sacred haunt of the beasts themselves. It wasn't a shrine erected by humans and it wasn't for humans. It was a spot consecrated by the gods for the wisdom animals."

Hagan looked worried. "And you think you've found it?"

Alina smiled and nodded towards Tuula and Otso. "The place has a name: Nemessos."

Hagan was shocked. Tuula looked scared and ducked her head. Otso looked for more food.

"Tuula and Otso have been sent by shamans south of us. Their people worship the five gods yet live in congruence with nature magic,"  Alina said.

Tuula picked up the story, speaking softly and simply. She had a way of glancing up at Hagan through her eyelashes. "We have found Nemessos. Otso and I plan to live at the base of the mountain. For the first time in hundreds of years, people will honor the animals."

Hagan, appalled, asked, "Do you mean it's a sort of menagerie? Where shamans can find spirit animals?" He didn't add, to kill, but his thought was obvious.

Tuula shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no, my lord. In the south we have spirit animals that have accumulated many souls which are used for shamans. Even so, the number of shamans is strictly limited in order to preserve our wisdom animals; we would rather honor them than sacrifice them. Of course, it is impious to create a spirit warrior. The warrior's soul might be sundered at his death. You see," she said almost caressingly to Hagan, "we are not uncivilized or ignorant. We worship the five gods through nature. The old magic brings us closer to them."

Hagan's shock shifted almost to curiosity as he listened to Tuula.

  She continued, piously, "Here at Nemessos it is vital that the animals live in nature and apart from humans. Nemessos is their shrine which we will maintain for them."

Thorn swallowed and looked thoughtful.

Hagan and Learned Eugen exchanged long looks. "We are going to have to confer about this," the Temple divine said.

Hagan shook his head, disturbed. "Eugen and I are merely here to carry out the Hallow King's orders concerning Earl Boarford."

Besoin intervened, "Yet you've expressed interest in the uncanny elements the Earl used to exert control. Alina's gift from the Goddess was required to neutralize Earl Boarford's sorcerer."

Learned Tancred added, "My lord, the people here have suffered threats, attacks, and death in the past several days."

Hagan nodded. "Fortunately, I have decided to advise the Hallow King to assign Thorn the castlemastership." _Oh, so I was about to lose the castlemastership when I confessed to carrying my boar?_

Rike's clear voice remarked, "It is late, Earl Hawkmoor and my guests. Let this conversation continue on the morrow." Everyone was glad to escape and ponder.

 

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As people began to drift toward home and bed, or to their rooms in the castle, Rike motioned to Thorn and Alina. "Are you two contemplating moving here some time soon?" She asked playfully.

Thorn held Alina's hand and smiled at his step-mother. "As soon as I can make arrangements for a crane with a hoist and pulley."

Besoin spoke up behind him. "I foresee a section of my back wall being removed. It had better be replaced expertly."

"We'll see you in the morning," Thorn said to Rike. Then he picked up a very sleepy Kirsa, held Alina's hand, and they walked with Besoin back to his house.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  --  Day 10

 

The next morning Thorn spoke to the people of Southfield. Stargard sent out summons, and, just before work, Thorn appeared on the docks. People crowded around, on the docks, in boats, in the taverns, and even on roofs.

Before Thorn could speak, a loud cheer went up. _May I not sound like Winken, Blinken, and Nod._

"People of Southfield," Thorn announced. "You have defended the town: Riders could not harrass you. Attacks from boats could not overwhelm you. You refuse to be intimidated."

Another loud cheer went up. Thorn waited until it receded.

"You have also completed an irrigation project for which you provided expertise and labor. The results will be fewer floods. Fields that produce food. Profitable farming, profitable shipping.

"I, Lord Thorn kin Boarford, pledge that I will work with you to make this town safer and more productive."

Another loud cheer went up. Now people were yelling, "Lord Thorn!" and "The Boar brings beer!" Thorn puzzled over whether that was a compliment. He wondered if Kuno Koluman had coined it.

 

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Hagan did not appear pleased when Thorn told him that he had promised to help Tuula settle at Nemessos. He shook his head and frowned, deeply unhappy that his friend, after a decade's exile from home, now was acting in a way that could undermine his reputation with those of Easthome: both the Temple and the hallow king.

"You gave your word, so that's it," he conceded.

Hagan also faced returning north with a large band of prisoners. While Earl Boarford and his senior followers needed to be treated with care, ten men had been arrested the day before the full attack, two of whom were wheezing. Another eighteen had survived the attack from the boats, one of whom presumably now carried a demon. Several wagons were needed for transporting the dead. None of the riders had survived. Hagan worried that he wouldn't be able to return all the prisoners to Easthome alive, as the threat of retaliation from the people of Rockall was real.

Alina joined Learned Eugen in assessing the prisoners; she saw the demon in a young soldier who was living in terror. The demon had jumped into him as the sorcerer died, bringing memories of the sorcerer, as well as of the cat and rat it had inhabited before the human. The demon had not gained ascendancy, but young soldier said his urges were ugly. Learned Eugen reassured him the best he could. The divine told the young man that the Temple would teach him to keep the demon under control. Probably, he would enter the Bastard's service. Eugen didn't mention that the young man's demon would be interviewed about his employment by Earl Boarford, especially concerning Thorn's kidnapping. Eugen also remained quiet about the sophistication of this demon.

Despite these concerns, Hagan enjoyed the day with Thorn, sharing experiences since their last forays together. Hagan relayed news, such as a few reports of plague already this year and hopes of exceptional harvests because of unusually temperate weather. Thorn promised to bring Alina to the capital soon and maybe on to the eastern castles of the Hawkmoors.

The most difficult experiences of the day were the funerals of those who had died in the Earl's attacks: two men had died directly from the sorcerer, and one of the crew members of the burned boat had died of his wounds. Alina knew that each soul had already been taken up by his god, but, of course, it was important for the families to see. She and Thorn attended the funerals.

The Southfield rider who had been killed left a very pregnant wife. She screamed inconsolably at the funeral, almost scaring the Father's greyhound from claiming the soldier's soul. Her father and brother guided her from the Temple afterwards, but she could not stop her frenzy. In the street her hysteria continued to mount, until a powerful voice ordered, "Calm."

The hysterical widow's scream cut off abruptly, and she appeared frozen in place. Tuula stepped up to her, held out her arms to grasp the woman's hands, and began to sing. The song seemed ancient and pure, its words unrecognizable but its intent clear. Everyone listening thought again of the deceased man, and of themselves, of memories, and of the future. The widow very slowly relaxed, and Tuula eventually released her, "Go now in peace. You are freed." A soft movement of air, the sigh of everyone present, left the observers calm in their grief.

"What was that?" People whispered among themselves. No one was afraid or defensive, just bemused.

Learned Tancred quickly directed Tuula and Learned Eugen to his office.

Alina and Thorn went to check on the progress of their bed.

By late in the day, workmen had already placed the crane and opened the back wall of the attic room at Besoin's house. In fact, they had carefully wrapped the bed and swung it down onto a cart. Alina and Thorn walked after as the cart trundled to the castle.

Fortunately, castles have very large doors right where they are needed, usually so that heavy artillery can be conveniently moved into place. The lord's chambers on the second floor opened directly onto the wide wall walk along the battlement. Moving the bed wasn't easy, yet it ended up in the lord's chamber without a scratch.

Besoin was left to scratch his head over the gaping hole in the back of his house.

Besoin brought Kirsa to dinner at the castle, as it would be Hagan and Learned Eugen's last evening in Southfield. Learned Tancred came, as well as Lutz Stargard and Tiela Furth and their wives. Rike seated Thorn and Alina as if Thorn was already castlemaster; it struck Alina that Rike looked incredibly happy and pleased with herself. In fact, looking at old friends Rike and Besoin chatter amicably, Alina wondered if maybe something more could develop now between them. _Stop being a matchmaker. Just because I'm happy doesn't mean everyone I love has to be happy._ She giggled privately.

"Hmmm . . . "

"Do you think this bed works as well here as it did in Besoin's house?"

"Sail away with me, my love."

 

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Day 11

Earl Hagan and Learned Eugen left early the next morning. First, Thorn checked with the workers at the docks -- planting was finishing up in the newly irrigated fields, and Gisil was ready for work to start at the second site upriver -- and with Lutz Stargard -- he and Old Balder sent boats downriver to reopen shipping. Meanwhile, Alina met with Learned Kilda at the infirmary; Alina wasn't needed, and Rona insisted that she did not need any help.

Second, Thorn and Alina visited Learned Tancred. The divine looked up when they entered his chamber, he nodded and smiled as if expecting them. "I suspected that you would pry my conversation with Learned Eugen out of me."

"Well?" Alina asked, forgetting any opening pleasantries.

"Sit down," the divine directed. "I think you, Thorn, would have been in a very difficult position if Hagan and Eugen had departed right after dinner two nights ago. Neither was prepared for a discussion of shamans, nor has either met a shaman, as far as he is aware."

Thorn nodded, frowning. "I knew it would come as a shock, especially to Hagan. But I had to inform him of the newly rediscovered site and its visitors."

"Yes," Tancred agreed. "It is pivotal you did because yesterday's public display of the weirding voice made a deep impression on Eugen."

"I thought that was the weirding voice," Alina understood now. "Besoin told me about it, but I had no idea it would be so . . .  moving."

"Have you used it?" Tancred asked Thorn.

Thorn blinked. "I don't even know if I have it. All I know about using my boar is that when I fight, I seem to grow larger and time seems to slow around me so that I can respond faster than my opponent. Also," he added, "I can smell where people are and sometimes what they are." He frowned. "I'm oversimplifying; it's not exactly smell, it's all the senses at once."

"Hmmm . . . ." Tancred eyed Thorn, "you might try . . .  well, first talk with Tuula."

"How does Learned Eugen feel about shamans now that he heard Tuula use the weirding voice?" Alina asked.

"Anyone hearing and seeing her yesterday would be moved by the power she used to help that poor woman," Tancred answered. "It was providential that both Earl Hagan and Learned Eugen had that experience."

"What advice will they carry to the Temple at Easthome and to the hallow king?" Thorn asked.

Tancred answered carefully, "They did not tell me. I am hopeful that there will be thoughtful study." He suddenly smiled, "Chances are the Temple will take its time arguing all the subtleties of the case. I think you can safely install Tuula and Otso at Nemessos for now, then wait for whatever the Temple has to say."

"Good," Thorn felt relieved. "I want to act quickly on this. At the same time I'm deeply concerned about Tuula's safety as people become aware of Nemessos."

Learned Tancred nodded. "So you should be."

Alina looked from one man to the other. "What is the problem? Why wouldn't Tuula be safe?"

Tancred answered, "Alina, shaman magic is of another time. People here don't understand it; on the one hand it's almost a game where you can dress up, paint yourself, and pretend you live in a wilder, less civilized age. You can cry listening to sentimental, mawkish songs that yearn for the past." He paused. "On the other hand, the shamans of the Old Weald, in the dark days leading up to Audar's destruction of Old Weald shamans and its magic, lowered themselves to performing human sacrifice. While that was the nadir of the belief, you can't dismiss it. Just as you can't dismiss the fact that anyone possessed of an animal spirit," he looked at Thorn, "cannot be received by his god unless a shaman cleanses him at his death. Remember: until a short decade ago, anyone possessed of an animal spirit in the Weald was burned as a heretic."

"What about the benefits of shamans?" Alina argued hotly. "Tuula showed how her weirding voice could aid that distraught widow." She gathered steam, "Furthermore, Learned, people in Tuula's country, Kopstal, follow both wisdom animals and shaman magic, as well as the five gods. The old and new ways live in harmony. The same in the South Seas, where Aarne and Jalmari live."

Learned Tancred wove his fingers together and pressed his forefingers to his upper lip. "Then, why, Alina, did Tuula come so far south, to a place unknown for eons?"

Alina did not say anything because Tuula had said she need to atone for . . . what?

Thorn remarked, "Alina, you're friends with Tuula. Why don't you talk with her, well, like women do?"

Alina looked at him in surprise. "I'm not going to report to you about anything Tuula says between friends."

"Why not?" Thorn wasn't sure why Alina was adamant. "We need to know why she sought Nemessos."

"Then ask her yourself!" Alina responded hotly. She turned back to Learned Tancred. "You're just forcing Tuula to prove herself to everyone in Weald as if she were some sort of criminal!" _What if she is a criminal?_ The possibility made her tenser.

With something close to a flounce, Alina angrily strutted out of the divine's chamber.

 

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She found Tuula in the infirmary, talking with Rona and Learned Kilda about the best combination of herbs to use for staunching blood. The women discovered that they shared common treatments for soothing the ill, as well as a preference for washing their hands before and after touching patients. Learned Kilda nodded emphatically, and wiped her runny nose carefully, covering her mouth when she coughed. This led a discussion of soap; Tuula said that soap from the lands to the west contained fragrances of roses and other flowers. The healers of the Weald had never heard of such a thing.

"Have you met people from many lands?" Gentle Rona asked, large-eyed.

"Well," Tuula answered, "Kopstal is a small place along a small river. But people have traveled through Kopstal since ancient times. Travelers trade things for food and lodging at our inns, or when they need supplies."

The Weald women were fascinated. No one traveled through Southfield.

"When you move to Nemessos," Alina asked, "will people from Kopstal come visit you?" She pictured visitors bringing exotic items to trade in town.

Tuula's face changed. "No." She answered emphatically.

Learned Kilda looked confused, "But I thought you sought Nemessos in order to let people know about it."

Tuula shook her head fiercely. "I hope everyone in Kopstal has forgotten me. I hope no one comes to Nemessos." She realized that she had surprised the others with her vehemence, so she added, "the animals won't be safe if Nemessos becomes popular."

Both Alina and Learned Kilda agreed; Alina could tell that the divine, although a bit run down from caring for both Southfield's and the Earl's wounded, was as curious as she about Tuula's past.

"Tuula," Alina suggested, "maybe we can find Aarne, Jalmari, and Thorn. They should be planning how to build your shelter."

Tuula looked happy and hopeful again. As they walked down towards the docks, Alina asked, "Thorn holds a wisdom boar. Can you tell?" Tuula nodded. "Does that mean Thorn has the weirding voice?"

Tuula was surprised. "He doesn't use it?"

Alina explained how Thorn had received his spirit boar. Tuula was distressed by the story; clearly, she had never heard of someone who hadn't chosen to take an animal spirit of his own free will. She was bemused by the idea that Thorn hadn't received guidance either.

"He must have a strong soul to have bonded well with his beast," she remarked.

Alina smiled, thinking of her husband. "Yes, he has a strong soul."

Tuula tilted her head. "And he still finds you attractive, now that he has the animal spirit and you do not?"

Alina felt stunned. "What do you mean?"

Tuula raised her hand. "I meant no offense. It's just that . . . . shamans are attracted to each other because their animal senses make them aware of much more than ordinary people."

Alina frowned. Did Thorn feel that there was less of her than there had been? Was this Tuula's way of suggesting an attraction to Thorn? She struggled, but couldn't find a way to frame a simple question. Besides, they had arrived at the docks. Sure enough, the three men they sought were in the Boar & Stork.

Thorn looked up and smiled tentatively at Alina. She told herself that Tuula was wrong, but it made her frown instead of smile back. Aarne and Jalmari were openly pleased to see them. A round, red-faced woman with hair that frizzed out of control from her braids was translating for the South Seas men when she had breaks from serving customers.

"Tuula," Aarne stated happily, "We build. For you. House." The barmaid slapped him on the back and nodded encouragingly at his speech.

Jalmari added, "Tomorrow." He earned his own slap from the jiggling woman.

Thorn explained, "The wood and supplies are being collected today. Tomorrow Aarne and Jalmari will take a crew to the site so they can construct your shelter."

Tuula's smile was warm and rapturous. Thorn blushed. Alina felt her heart constrict. Then her anger surfaced. She wasn't about to let a lady shaman entice Thorn. Tuula must have other responsibilities.

"Where's Otso?" She asked suddenly. Jalmari pointed to the dock. Otso was fishing with Ishild. Perfectly safe.

"Oh, Lord Thorn," Tuula said softly. "Lady Alina told me about your spirit boar. I would be honored to teach you the ways of shamans."

Thorn's eager look made Alina want to shake him. And slap Tuula. And make herself stop acting foolish. This was ridiculous. All right, she was going to find out just why Tuula was here and what she was atoning for.

Thorn needed to check on the day's work, so Alina walked to the castle, finding Rike in her solar with Lady Zary. Rike seemed as quick to catch Alina's moods as Besoin; she instantly inquired whether Alina was all right.

"No." Alina felt stubborn. 

Rike raised her eyebrows inquiringly.

"Tuula says shamans are attracted to other shamans."

"Oh." Rike could put much meaning into one word.

"She offered to teach Thorn about being a shaman, and he looked bewitched."

Rike nodded.

"Rike," Alina said, "First I defended Tuula to Learned Tancred and Thorn, and now I want to get rid of her."

Rike and Zary exchanged looks.

Rike remarked, "Are you confusing the shaman who deserves your concern with the woman Tuula?"

"There shouldn't be a difference," Alina said miserably.

Zary said, "Of course there is a difference."

"I mean," Alina corrected herself, "I should treat them both consistently. I should overlook the fact that I want to hit her."

Rike smiled. "Why does she get under your skin?"

"You understood when I told you," Alina returned. "She thinks she can make Thorn like her. Even fall in love with her." Alina reflected, "And when she talks to men, she comes on all sweet and demure." Alina felt like spitting again.

"Do you seriously think Tuula could ensnare Thorn?"

"No. I guess not," Alina pursed her lips. "But Tuula does have powers for snaring men, I'm sure." She sat up. "I am an awful person to say that."

Zary cut in, "What is bothering you about yourself, Alina? Tuula seems to have hit a very sensitive nerve."

Alina felt insignificant and mean. "I don't know how to be pleasing and subservient the way Tuula is. I don't even want to be that way. But she knows how to get what she wants."

"Are you jealous of her shaman powers?" Rike asked. "If so, you are forgetting your very privileged relationship with the Mother of Summer."

Alina knew that she was privileged. But that was different. She answered in a small voice, "I think it's the woman Tuula who I envy."

Alina looked at Rike and Zary. "I've become very curious -- concerned -- about her reason for being here. When I first met her, she let slip that she is atoning for something. I didn't want to push her for confidences then. But now I'm increasingly suspicious of her background."

Rike answered, "It's reasonable for her to explain why she has come to our little backwater, even if we have an extraordinary site."

Zary added, "Alina, trust yourself. You're fair. You'll treat her story objectively. That's the best you could offer anyway."

A knock at the door, and Thorn came in. He looked warily towards Alina, but Rike instantly put her hands out to him. "Ah, son, I can't seem to get enough of looking at you!"

Thorn smiled and as he approached to kiss Rike, Alina smiled too, seeing him at home with his step-mother. Thorn's appearance had gained life in the short time since Kritsyn had brought him into town. She found herself commenting aloud, "You're not the gray man anymore, Thorn. You're solid and real."

Thorn turned to kiss her, too.

Later that night, Alina asked Thorn, "Does Tuula look special to you because of her spirit animal?"

Thorn frowned, and his wariness returned, but he answered her question. "Tuula exudes air and feathers, wind and mountains. I believe she possesses an eagle or hawk. Otso is all earth and woods, berries, bugs, grasses, even a scent of slightly rotten meat, such as a bear would eat."

"Do you like Tuula more because of her eagle?" Alina knew she was saying this wrong.

"Alina," Thorn asked, "What's bothering you?"

"Tuula intimated that you might find me less attractive because I don't have a spirit animal and she does." Okay, there it was. She'd said it.

Thorn's mouth slowly turned up at the ends. He reached to roll one of Alina's curls on his finger, then pulled so that she had to raise her head to meet his kiss half way. After a long kiss, Thorn released her hair and cupped her face in his hands. "Alina, I love you. I love how you move, smell, feel in my arms. I love your thoughts, your need to heal, your anger. Alina," his voice grew rough, "you waited for me for ten years." He hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe.

"When I met Kritsyn, and he said he wanted to marry you," Thorn whispered, "I truly felt I didn't have a right to claim you. But you were determined to keep me. Then Blenko chased you into the forest. It didn't seem possible that I'd lived without you all those years only to lose you. But now, I'll never let you go."

Alina smiled into his chest. Then she cried.

 

##############################################################################

Day 12

 

Alina caught a ride on one of the boats taking materials to the upriver campground. Tuula was in her element; the more she praised the men, the faster and better they worked. Otso brought tools and supplies as they were needed. Alina had thought the South Seas men were only sailors, but Aarne and Jalmari were talented carpenters as well.

As they raised the wooden leanto, Alina sat down beside Tuula to watch.

"Tuula," Alina began, "what is the real reason you came to Southfield?"

Tuula didn't respond at first. Then she asked, "What do you mean?"

"You said you needed to atone for something."

Tuula still stared at the men working. "I've already told you what you need to know."

Alina shook her head, "Actually, you haven't, Tuula. You haven't explained why you and Otso, and the shaman who died, came all the way down here."

Tuula was silent.

"No one else had returned to this site for, well, I don't know how long. A very, very long time. But for some reason you needed to come all this way and search for Nemessos."

Tuula remained silent.

"Tuula," Alina sighed, "This question will remain. And your ability to stay here will rest on whether you answer."

Tuula nodded, then looked at Alina. "The stories about Nemessos have been around, oh, forever. Someone, some day, was going to search for it."

Alina nodded.

"All right." Tuula took a deep breath. "You need to know this first. Both the Temple divines and the shamans are very powerful in Kopstal. Over centuries our overlord varied from one of four neighboring countries, but the religious center of Kopstal always overrode any political leader. The shamans were secondary to the Temple divines, but they generally worked in different spheres. You know when I sang to the widow after the funeral; a shaman can ease woes and fears. A shaman can heal a little differently from a Temple physician; while the physician uses herbs and ointments, a shaman can calm the sick person's emotions and distress. We no longer create spirit warriors, but when shamans sing men on to battle, they fight with pride and confidence. That's why sailors throughout the South Seas ask shamans to bless their journeys over the ocean. We sing them on their way."

Alina tried to understand. "So where you might go to the Temple to pray for a god's aid,  you might also go to a shaman to be sung to and, thus, encouraged?"

Tuula nodded. "Also, there aren't many shamans. For all that the Temple divines and shamans coexist, shamans are limited."

"Oh," Alina said, "I thought Aarne and Jalmari, as well as you and Otso, came from places where shaman magic is common."

"Not really," Tuula answered. "But it isn't a heresy as it is here. We've heard frightening stories of shamans being burned in the Weald and spirit animals being hunted to extinction. No one in any of the southern lands would ever do that. It's just that shaman magic is old. Nowadays most people feel closer to the gods through the Temple."

"So, what happened with you?"

Tuula looked down. "Alina, you won't understand this because you and the women I've met in Southfield are capable and men respect you. It isn't the same in Kopstal."

"What!?" Alina was shocked. "Men can be worse than they are here?"

Tuula smiled sadly. "In my country women aren't allowed the same level of training as men, whether they're healers in the Temple or shaman. No woman would ever temporarily stand in for a castlemaster as Lady Rike does. Women don't work in public places. They don't even leave the house without a man to protect them. I'm amazed at Ishild and Agata."

"But you're a fine healer, Tuula."

Tuula shrugged. "Women heal other women, so I was taught that sort of medicine. Also, I convinced male healers to let me watch them." She broke off a blade of grass and wound it around her fingers. "I found that if I acted the supplicant and if I flattered men, they would teach me more."

The blade of grass broke in her fingers. "My sisters were jealous of me, and word spread among the women that I was . . .  loose." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Then a man -- a shaman -- who was going to teach me more healing -- raped me."

"Oh, no," Alina put her arm around Tuula's shoulder.

"Of course, it was my fault," Tuula whispered.

"Your fault? How could that be?"

"Because any woman who goes into a room alone with a man deserves whatever happens."

"That's atrocious!" Alina exclaimed.

Tuula looked into the distance. "That is the way things are. I was hurt and angry and alone. Anyway, I did something terrible to the man in revenge. He became sick with a cancer that ate him quickly. I was with him when he died." She swallowed. "I did not release his spirit deer."

Alina breathed out. "His soul was sundered?"

"I hated him. I wanted him to suffer forever." Tuula looked down. "He hurt me forever." She looked up at Alina. "I was wrong. I committed something worse than murder. I became more evil than he was."

"Did they -- the Temple -- exile you?"

She nodded. "They weren't sure who was with him when he died." She focused on Alina. "Another shaman cleansed him of his spirit deer, but his ghost refused the Father of Winter. They didn't have enough proof to punish me, so they said if I stayed in Kopstal, my life would be forfeit. Anyone could kill me."

"Just a minute," Alina was confused. "You refused to release his spirit deer, but another shaman did. The shaman who raped you -- his soul made the decision to refuse the gods. It was his act of free will. You shouldn't be punished for that."

Tuula's mouth twisted. "Alina, when women have no rights, they are automatically culprits. Anything that happens to a man is explained as caused by a woman."

Alina shook her head. And shook it again. She hugged Tuula.

"How did you decide to seek Nemessos?"

"A shaman was leaving anyway and was bringing Otso; he had a crazy dream of rediscovering Nemessos. To tell the truth, the rest of us thought he was obsessed with a place that no longer existed. He had hired Aarne and Jalmari, and my family paid him to take me away."

"Will you be all right here?" Alina asked.

"Oh, yes," Tuula's voice was certain. "I've come home."

 The wooden leanto was complete by day's end. People had donated blankets and rugs, buckets and a pot, frypan and utensils. Tuula and Otso were well supplied and had a boat that would float them down to town easily. They waved as Alina left with the others.

Alina told Tuula's story to Thorn, Besoin, and Rike that night. They all watched the fire as she recounted Tuula's experiences.

"I can't believe women would allow men to treat them like they're utterly useless," Alina said.

Besoin followed a different track, "I wonder if the shamans would have eventually been discarded in the Weald if Audar hadn't deliberately eradicated them."

Alina felt lucky to be in an isolated little town in a backwater land where she was trained and blessed to minister to the sick, where she could mix with all the folks of the town, and where she was loved. It was a bit of a surprise.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 -- Day 13

 

Alina and Thorn slept late, then savored the light and songs of birds and warm, fresh air, taking their time to enjoy each other before rising for the day. Alina felt full and sated; she was aware of her soft skin, the stretch of her legs and arms, and the springy tickle of her black curls. She rolled on her side and gazed at Thorn, long, lean but no longer gaunt, unkempt white blonde hair, and long, pale eyelashes. Multiple white and red jagged scars scored his body, each suggesting a story: pain, endurance. She began tracing a scar with her finger; Thorn turned his head to look at her with his deep, blue eyes. She leaned over and kissed him slowly and thoroughly.

After breakfasting together, Rike and Zary having eaten earlier, Alina planned to visit the infirmary. Thorn looked at her closely, "Alina, do you mind if I visit Tuula? It doesn't have to be today, but I want to know if I have the weirding voice."

Alina smiled, "Yes, I don't mind."

Thorn smiled back. "Then I'll take a boat up there after I visit the Boar & Stork." He paused. "They don't need me anymore for daily operations, but they should know I'm available."

"Why don't you hold an open day?" Alina suggested. "Folks would feel more comfortable then about visiting you."

"Good idea," Thorn's grin told Alina he'd had the same idea. "When? Is tomorrow too soon?"

"Sounds fine," Alina pondered. "I'll talk with Rike; she knows how to run these things. In fact, I think she's pining to arrange a big gathering."

"Women," Thorn teased. "Always thinking of parties."

Rike was thrilled with the idea when Alina asked her; Rike and Zary immediately set off to make lists with the cook and give orders to butler Kolding and the rest of the staff.

At the Mother's Mercy infirmary, the worst sick case was the divine herself. Learned Kilda's respiratory troubles had developed to a stage where she was shockingly weak. An acolyte was also coughing and complaining of exhaustion.

"Did you and the acolyte treat the same patients?" She asked Kilda.

Kilda looked at her in reproach. Of course, they shared treating all the patients. Then Kilda blinked and slowly sputtered out between wheezes, "Earl's sailor. Coughing."

Alina felt a tightening in her gut. She looked at Kilda and knew she didn't have to say anything. "I will find something to make you comfortable." In the back of her mind she doubted she could make the divine well.

"Rona, please make up a warm drink of vinegar and honey for Learned Kilda and the acolyte." Alina directed, "I'm going to move them to the same room. I'll take care of them."

Gentle Rona was unhappy. "But Dedicat --"

"Do we have . . .  Yes, we have plenty of garlic stored from last fall. We need more barberry leaves," Alina remembered Thorn saying that Hagan had heard of plague cases. Oh, no.

Rona nodded. Alina proceeded with moving the two patients together and barring access to their room. Learned Tancred dropped by, distressed by Kilda's illness. Her husband came also, and insisted on helping tend his wife; Alina acquiesced because several people needed to be dedicated to these patients. Kilda's mother could watch the children.

Alina carefully examined Kilda. She had no buboes, nor were there black marks under her skin. But she was having increasing difficulty breathing, and her forehead was extremely hot. Learned Tancred came into the room.

"I've never seen the plague," Alina said quietly. "I thought there would be signs."

"I have," the Temple divine sighed, distraught. "These women have signs as certain as buboes."

Thorn arrived in response to a message from Alina; soon after, he and Learned Tancred met with Lutz Stargard and Kuno Koloman at the Boar & Stork. Despite the risk of causing hysteria, Learned Tancred wanted to isolate any more infected people as quickly as possible. He asked people to think about who had had direct dealings with the Earl's men, especially the sick one. He also asked that couriers ride to Rockall with a notice of the plague in Southfield. River traffic would be curtailed until the illness had passed. Finally, he encouraged people to eat garlic in hopes of preventing a larger outbreak.

By the time Thorn and the divine returned to the infirmary, Rider Kai and two of his men had been brought to the infirmary coughing up mucous. Alina installed them in a separate area. She arranged for the three infirmary patients who didn't have the plague to return to their homes or places where others could care for them.

"Thorn," Alina said, "I'm going to stay here until. . . . As long as I need to." She smiled weakly.

Thorn looked unhappy, but didn't try to change her mind.

Usually in early summer the infirmary grounds were an oasis of droning bees, cicadas, and bird songs. This evening the rasping sound of people gulping for air drowned out anything peaceful. They are suffocating, Alina thought, as she and her small team poured mint teas and vinegar and honey mixture down red throats. She cleaned up bloody mucous. She made poultices as well as drinks of barberry leaves. She wished her hearing weren't so keen.

Overnight the rest of Kai's troop came, choking, to the infirmary, as well as two sailors.

           

###########################################################################

Day 14

 

Learned Kilda died midmorning, her husband holding her hand. Alina felt it was a blessing after listening to the divine's suffering. Her husband, crying, began to cough. Alina, feeling his hot forehead, forced him to stay in the infirmary.

Alina refused to let Thorn near her or the infirmary. She felt defeated and exhausted. Rona looked pale but kept working.

Kilda's acolyte died in the afternoon.

"Why are so many people sickening?" Alina asked Learned Tancred helplessly.

He shrugged. He also looked spent, but had refused to stay away from the ill. "Once the plague takes hold, there's no stopping it."

"But no one shows the actual signs of plague," Alina answered crossly.

Voices outside made Alina open the door. Tuula was standing there, as was Thorn. "She insisted on coming," he said apologetically to Alina. She waved good-bye to him.

"Show me the worst cases first," Tuula said quietly. Alina took her to Rider Kai, whose raw rasps showed how little air he was taking in.

Tuula sat beside Rider Kai, took his hands, and sang. Despite the coughs and gasps, her voice calmed everyone there. Thoughts turned to a weaving of life, warp and weft, moving with and moving through. Alina recalled her parents for the first time in many years.

Tuula sang Rider Kai to his last sleep. Alina wasn't there; she had turned the Daughter of Spring's school into sick quarters for the little children and elderly who had arrived with the plague.

Tuula moved from room to room, singing softly, holding the hands of the dying, bringing peace.

Learned Tancred's head ached with the pressing demand of funerals. Alina looked at him, sent him to bed, and brought him barberry tea. She reassured him: the gods had taken up all the souls. Whenever he was able to hold funeral rites, the families would know their loved ones were in the world of spirit.

##############################################################################

Day 15

 

With Tancred ill, Alina wasn't surprised when Rona collapsed. In fact, Alina felt that she was beyond feeling anything. As she leaned over a pale, choking child with fever-flushed cheeks, she felt that she was falling into a pit. She caught herself, terrified. Holding onto the bed, the wall, the door, she staggered out of the room. In the courtyard, she sagged to the ground. She was unconscious, barely breathing, by the time she was laid in bed.

Alina was aware of Tuula's voice, singing at the shore. Helping her cross.

Power and vastness beyond the shore. Was this throbbing compulsion for love the sweet Mother of Summer? A _Presence_. "My Alina," the Goddess said. "May I come through you?"

"Yes, Mother." Alina, floating, felt something warm, thick, slide from the bright, deep, womb of the spirit, through her, and into the matter of Southfield. It swept around Tuula's song, turning the music to a green solid, to an ephemeral feeling of grace. The shaman magic echoed and swirled into the Goddess. The Goddess traveled over mountains and rivers and oceans, picking up wisdom magic, distilling it, then returning it, purified. Alina felt stags lift their heads, foxes pause, and eagles settle on peaks, folding their wings. Every shaman shivered.

Then, as the Goddess swept back through Alina, the Mother whispered, "Alina, you could come with me now."

Alina gulped. The beauty of the Mother was overwhelming. "Mother, please wait for me. I have so much in life."

She felt the Goddess's pleasure and a secret chuckle. And she slept.

 

##############################################################################

Day 16

 

Alina awoke to utter stillness. She could hear no coughing, moaning, crying. Was everyone dead?

She was in a bed in the infirmary. Had everyone in Southfield perished? How long had she been asleep?

She remembered the Goddess.

She heard a groan nearby. Alina flexed her fingers into Thorn's silky hair. He looked up, "Oh, Alina," then buried his face in her chest. She patted his head. She waited. She could feel her strength return, bit by tiny bit.

"I talked with the Goddess," she said it so foolishly that he looked up, suspecting delirium. Although she smiled lightly back at him, she definitely hadn't lost her wits.

Tuula came to the door. She saw Alina was awake and smiled joyously. She looked even thinner and frailer than usual, but she now relaxed. "How do you feel, Alina?"

"The Mother came through me to you," Alina said happily.

Tuula's smile broadened further. "I know." Her eyes focused on something far away. "She took my voice and my healing powers, then gave them back to me again, changed."

"What does this mean?" Thorn asked, sitting up beside Alina.

Tuula tipped her head to the side. "I think the Mother of Summer now encompasses the holy remnants of shaman magic. The weirding voice and the blessings and the healing have moved into the spirit world and have become gifts of the Mother."

Alina didn't want to ask, but, "I don't hear any other patients. What happened?"

Thorn smiled down at her. "They're all resting. They're healing."

"Learned Tancred?"

"He's doing well," Tuula answered. "After you sickened, I sang to you." She frowned, "I thought you died." Alina nodded. Tuula continued,  "There was a strange stop in time. That's when I felt the Mother of Summer."

Thorn nodded. "My bear knew."

"After that," Tuula continued, "our patients calmed. The Goddess didn't heal them; after all, she couldn't cure an illness from the world of matter. But, relaxed, the sick are simply feeling the plague travel out of their systems. Everyone will recover."

Alina felt happy that so many would recuperate. A wave of sadness broke over her as she remembered Learned Kilda and Rider Kai and so many others. Tears slipped down her cheeks.

"If there is no fear of infection, may I go home?" She asked, childlike. Thorn nodded.

 

###########################################################################

           

Day 20

 

The Goddess of Summer's Day began with ceremony and continued with festivities. In the pageant, a young, sloe-eyed bride gave right of place at the throne held by the Daughter of Spring to a cheerful, pregnant matron, representing the Mother of Summer, whose other children excitedly chattered throughout the proceedings.

The festivities were held at the castle. Although folks grieved over many recent losses, the benefits of overcoming the wicked Earl and surviving an outbreak of the plague, as well as particularly fine weather, made for a long day and night of revelry. Kuno Koloman and an inebriated Gisil competed in composing songs that were scatalogical in perfect rhyme and meter. 

Tuula and Otso came from upriver; local folks weren't interested in calling it Nemessos. Such a title was too high-fallutin'. Besides, Tuula's voice was warmly welcomed in the town, and if she chose to live in the wild, well, that was up to her.

While Rike's hope that Thorn would be invested as castlemaster at the midsummer celebrations wasn't fulfilled, she was buoyed by Besoin's suggestion that she accompany him to Easthome. Even Thorn noticed the smiles the two shared; he imagined that they were finally free to wander together to their hearts' content.

After hours of receiving people, hearing their names and stories, Alina refused to stand anymore. She sat with Thorn in a pavilion on the south lawn where she could survey contests as well as frivolities.

"How do you feel?" Thorn whispered in her ear.

"I'm fine, Thorn." She leaned her head into his face, "You can't ask me that every day until the baby is born. I'm barely pregnant." Should she have told Thorn so soon? She remembered the Goddess's chuckle. Yes, it would be all right.

She could feel his smile. "I will ask you every day for the rest of my life."

Learned Tancred hobbled over, leaning on a cane. His recovery was slowed by his insistence on continuing all his Temple responsibilities. A servant quickly brought a chair for the divine.

Alina smiled widely at him. His insightful wink made her blush; was she so transparent to everyone? She'd better be serious. "Learned, do you think shamans and divines everywhere realized the change the Mother of Summer made?"

He pursed his lips. "I think every shaman, every sorcerer, and every saint or petty saint knew something profound happened. Shamans and saints of the Mother would have a very clear idea."

"Will shamans still need spirit animals?"

Tancred shrugged slightly. Clearly, he was not interested in deep contemplation at the moment, but he had his opinion. "Spirit animals will no longer be sacrificed into humans in order to make shaman. Conversely," he nodded at Thorn, "when a shaman dies, his or her soul will no longer be sundered until it is cleansed of the spirit animal."

"Will there still be shamans?"

"I don't know, Alina." Learned Tancred looked at his hands. "Tuula's song represents the closest example of pure beauty that I have experienced in our impure world. I would hate to see it fade away."

Thorn leaned over and grasped Alina's hand tightly. "Are you all right with this? I mean, you don't need to worry."

Just then Kirsa and Otso ran into the pavilion. They were covered with dirt and laughing. "Kuno Koloman gave us seeds. We're planting a garden!"


End file.
